Business of Games: studios that raised funds in July, investment round-up

Investment round-up, with a list of studios that got funded in the July 1st week:

1. Capcom acquires animation firm Minimum Studios
2. Indie publisher Mystic Forge raises €2m in funding
3. Nazara eyes full acquisition of Kiddopia in $36m deal
4. Daybreak acquires struggling Palia developer Singularity 6
5. Kwalee has announced a minority investment in Devolver Digital
6. Kids veteran Rob Doherty forms social gaming consultancy Relevant Content
7. Nazara Technologies’ unit to complete the acquisition of Ultimate Teen Patti in one month
8. Bitmagic raises $4M for AI platform that generates 3D games from consumer prompts
9. Keywords Studios to sell to EQT in £24.50-per-share buyout totalling £2.1 billion (follow-up news)
10. Tower Studios’ arcade-style football game series Sociable Soccer has been acquired by Sporty Group

2nd week:

1. Former Piranha Bytes devs form Pithead Studio
2. Summer Games Done Quick 2024 raises $2.5m
3. Landvault has been acquired by Infinite Reality for $450m
4. Hawke Media acquires gaming & entertainment agency Lemonade
5. Felicity Games raises $700K in pre-seed to test 10 games within a year
6. Top App Games has appointed industry veteran Vladimir Markov as its new CEO following a significant investment from My.Games former CEO Vladimir Nikolsky.
7. Series Entertainment acquires mobile studio Pixelberry
8. Aethir and GameSwift team up on Web3 gaming
9. New indie publishing and investment firm First Break Labs forms
10. Soccerverse has secured $3.1 million in a funding round led by Square Enix
11. Volley raises $55M voice-enabled AI games, series C funding round
12. Sony Music, Aniplex, and Pocketpair form Palworld Entertainment
13. Shift Up raises $320 million in IPO, the largest for a game company in South Korea since Krafton

3rd week:

1. Grand Games raises $3m in funding round
2. AI startup Echo Chunk, creator of Echo Chess, has raised $1.4 million in a pre-seed
3. Dusk raises $8M to build social multiplayer gaming platform
4. New studio Blue Scarab raises $7m in funding round
5. Artificial intelligence tools creator X&Immersion raises €1.1 million in funding, they provide tools for video game studios to help support the development of text, voice, and animation
6. Nazara completes acquisition of Paper Boat Apps (Kidopia)
7. Artificial Agency raises $16m for generative AI behavior engine

4th week:

1. Lumikai invests in MPL’s Mayhem Studios
2. NPC Labs raises $18M to bring mainstream games to Web3
3. Warner Bros Games acquires MultiVersus studio Player First
4. Igloo, Inc. raises $11M for new consumer blockchain, Abstract
5. Mobile market intelligence platform AppMagic raises $3 million
6. Former Pixelberry devs band together to form Candlelight Games
7. EA vets’ new studio Play By Play aims to revive the spirit of NBA Street
8. UGC platform developer Look North World raises $4.5 million in seed funding
9. eSports brand GiantX has acquired AI esports coaching start-up iTero Gaming
10. Agora Gaming Partners raises $600K to launch publishing and fundraising advisory service

July Last week:

1. 2weeks raises $1.25m in pre-seed funding
2. NCsoft invests $3.5m in Moon Rover Games
3. Ubisoft teams up with NFL to launch new fantasy football game
4. Dstlry raises $5M for digital comics publishing and marketplace
5. Freestyle Chess debuts with $12M in funding for tournament series
6. nWay launch Bomberman-esque Web3 PvP game ‘Cosmic Bomber’
7. dotplay raises $1 million funding to transform mobile game distribution
8. GiantX acquires League of Legends AI coaching app maker iTero Gaming
9. Ex-Unity and Scopely developers launch new studio, Outer Haven Games
10. Nazara acquires IP rights of Ultimate Teen Patti from Games24x7 for 10crore ($1.2M)

With Love, Cartic P
/ @iCartic.com