Impact46's Eric Husny: "The ecosystem today is simply much more investable than it was a few years ago"

• Impact46 says it has now invested in 16 gaming companies.
• The fund is prioritising Saudi-based studios but remains open to other MENA markets.
• Impact46 says Kammelna's $53 million-plus deal was an exception to its typical investment range.
• The fund says Saudi gaming is now more investable thanks to stronger talent, infrastructure and commercial proof.

Saudi Arabia’s games industry continues to grow rapidly and Impact46 has become a major investor in the sector, with 16 gaming investments to date and a focus on backing companies that can build sustainable businesses.

The firm's recent $53 million-plus investment in Kammelna, one of its largest gaming deals to date, demonstrates the scale of its ambitions in the sector.

We caught up with Impact46 senior fund manager Eric Husny to discuss its approach to gaming investments, the Kammelna deal, what the fund looks for in studios and how Saudi Arabia’s games ecosystem is changing.

You can learn more about investment in the Middle East and wider regional trends at Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan on November 7th and 8th.

PocketGamer.biz: Impact46 has now invested in a number of studios. What stood out about these teams? 

Eric Husny: I believe the actual number is 16 at this point. But those first six investments were really the beginning of our journey in gaming and helped shape how we think about backing studios and teams in the sector. 

What has stood out across the studios is a combination of strong past experience, clarity of vision, and an understanding of the bigger picture involved in building and shipping a successful game. That means looking beyond the product itself and understanding user acquisition, monetisation, retention, distribution and how to build a sustainable business around the game. 

We've also been fortunate to back founders building some of the clearest and most compelling gaming companies operating in Saudi Arabia today. Ultimately, though, the critical factor is demonstrated capability: having a strong vision is important, but being able to execute against that vision is what really differentiates a team. 

Can you take us through the selection process? What does Impact46 look for when investing in a startup?

It depends heavily on the stage of the company. At the earlier stages, it's primarily about the strength of the team: their past experience, how deeply they understand their market and how differentiated and compelling their vision is. We also place real value on team harmony and chemistry.

Building a company is a long journey, and the ability of a founding team to work well together, challenge one another constructively and remain aligned through difficult periods matters enormously. That's something our leadership, Mr Abdulaziz AlOmran and Mrs Basmah AlSinaidi, strongly believe in. As companies mature, the process naturally becomes much more data-driven.

We're looking at the strength of the existing business, metrics such as CAC, LTV and ROAS, as well as the growth potential of the market they're targeting, for example. At every stage, though, we're ultimately asking the same question: is this a team capable of building a meaningful, scalable business?

With so much influence concentrated within Saudi Arabia, is the Gaming Fund primarily focused on Saudi gaming companies? Do you foresee investing across the wider MENA or Africa?

We're definitely prioritising Saudi-based studios and teams. It's part of our DNA, '46' is Riyadh's longitude, after all. That said, we do invest across other MENA geographies, particularly where a studio has a clear focus on, or a credible plan to expand into, the Kingdom.

Saudi Arabia is increasingly a key market for gaming companies regardless of where they're headquartered, so we're naturally interested in teams that understand the opportunity here and have a meaningful strategy for participating in it. 

The Kammelna deal was reported at more than $53 million, significantly larger than Impact46's other publicly announced gaming investments. What made Kammelna an opportunity for such a substantial commitment and is there a ceiling on how much you're willing to invest in a single gaming company? 

Kammelna is one of the standout Saudi-born gaming studios. The company has exceptionally healthy metrics across MAUs, retention and monetisation, alongside a business model centred around subscriptions that made it a very attractive opportunity. Beyond the existing performance, both we and Kammelna's management see significant room for further growth.

As a gaming fund, being able to assess and pursue opportunities of this scale was always part of the broader ambition. Getting the transaction over the line was ultimately about finding the right market conditions and appetite to close the deal, while ensuring full alignment with the management team. We're excited about what building a genuine success story with Kammelna can mean, not just for the company itself, but for the wider ecosystem.

That said, a deal of this size is very much an exception rather than our typical investment range. Impact46 primarily positions itself as an early- to growth-stage investor and Kammelna was an exception we were prepared to make because we believed it was the right opportunity. 

What do you think has changed in the Saudi gaming market that has made investors like Impact46 willing to put substantial capital into local studios? 

It's no secret that gaming has become a key strategic pillar of Vision 2030. That has driven real change at the ecosystem level: the rise of accelerator and incubator programs, greater investment in education and talent development, credit facilities, relocation incentives for more mature companies and a range of other mechanisms designed to support the sector.

That momentum has, in turn, attracted international and established companies to look at the Kingdom as their next major market and has given private investment a real push. The ecosystem today is simply much more investable than it was a few years ago. There's more talent, more infrastructure, stronger companies and increasingly, real commercial proof points. 

What's a common mistake you see gaming founders make when pitching to investors? And what do you wish more investors understood about backing game studios in the Middle East?

The most common challenge we see, particularly with first-time founders, is over-indexing on game development itself without having a sufficiently clear go-to-market or monetisation strategy. Building a great game is obviously important, but that's only part of the equation. You also need to understand how you're going to acquire users, retain them, monetise effectively and ultimately build a sustainable business.

What I wish more investors understood is that one of the biggest constraints in this region is simply track record. Teams here haven't necessarily had the same runway to build multi-year comparable data that investors are used to seeing in more established markets. That often gets interpreted as risk when, in many cases, it's simply a question of timing. Exceptional talent is already here and it's already building.

There's also a tendency to view Saudi capital going into gaming as purely strategic or subsidy-driven. What sometimes gets overlooked is the commercial case. A studio building here has access to a large, underserved and high-spending local market, which can provide a genuine distribution advantage. That's not just a strategic argument, it's a real commercial reason to invest. 

Talk to us about the startups. What's unique about the game studios you're seeing from Saudi Arabia compared to other regions? 

We're seeing startups that are much more culturally grounded. Some are building around behaviors, habits and forms of entertainment that are genuinely distinct to Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region, whether that's card games, social gaming experiences or play centered around the regional zeitgeist.

We're also seeing more founders looking to tell native stories and build new IP from the region. That cultural understanding can be a real advantage. The strongest companies aren't simply copying what has worked elsewhere; they're taking global lessons and applying them to opportunities that are genuinely relevant to their audience. 

Beyond just games, you've backed other platforms and tools. What kind of innovation do you think MENA is best positioned to lead globally?

Some of the companies we look at are solving highly local problems; payment infrastructure is a good example. But because many industries in the region are still relatively young, local founders are also in a unique position. They can leverage the knowledge and lessons learned in more mature markets without having to repeat the same mistakes.

There's an opportunity to effectively leapfrog. A lot of the companies and studios we're seeing are also new enough to be AI-native from day one. They aren't necessarily trying to retrofit AI into an existing business; they're building with it from the beginning. That, in itself, can become a meaningful competitive advantage. 

What does success look like for Impact46 when it invests in a game studio?

We're always going to be financially driven first and prioritise backing companies that we believe can generate strong financial returns. That said, we absolutely value investments that contribute to the broader ecosystem as well. It matters to us when an investment helps build a valuable Saudi company, creates meaningful jobs, develops local talent or contributes to the creation of original IP.

Those factors aren't a substitute for strong financial fundamentals, but when you can achieve both strong returns alongside meaningful ecosystem impact, that's where an investment becomes particularly compelling. Ultimately, our goal is to back companies that can become enduring businesses and real success stories, both commercially and for the ecosystem they're helping to build.