Behold Ventures has raised $25.9 million to fund investment in gaming startups, mainly in the fast-growing Nordic industry cluster in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland.
The company was founded by DICE studio veterans Karl Magnus Troedsson and Sigurlina Ingvarsdottir and Sequent veteran Magnus Kenneby.
“We’re a small venture capital fund and are passionate about our small sector. We believe that we can do better than many others at picking the winners inside of this sector,” said Troedsson. “We can also do better than others helping our portfolio companies create value, and help them become great companies. And if we do this right, we will not only help usher in a new generation of game developers, but we’ll also make great business for ourselves and our limited partners in the fund.”
The firm will utilise the co-founders experience and network within the games industry to find the most promising start ups, using the funds to accelerate value building to help the selected companies to scale and create successful games.
Success in Sweden
Behold Ventures has already invested in 12 studios, including Firestroke and Aurora Punks. Companies who receive investment are given access to the expertise of industry veterans to help them create game studios and launch games with the potential to become successful in the global market.
”The uniquely successful Nordic games industry is more relevant than ever on a global market, and it’s clear that a steadily growing global audience considers video games to be the most rewarding form of entertainment. We believe that there is great value to be found in the sector if it’s done by investors who truly understand the gaming industry and can help entrepreneurs build highly successful and lasting companies,” said Troedsson.
Being based in Sweden will let the company take advantage of the country’s talent pool and quickly-growing infrastructure, with the Swedish games industry generating more revenue from foreign subsidiaries than domestic ones for the first time in 2021. Although Finland remains the undisputed leader in the Nordic games space, Sweden’s own industry has proven successful. With Finland seeing such large amounts of investment from a variety of sources, Sweden has been overshadowed to an extent, something Behold hopes to remedy, bringing more attention to a market which has often been overlooked.
In August, we listed Swedish firm Embracer Group as one of the top mobile game makers of 2022.
