New for 2020, the second round of PocketGamer.biz MasterClasses are only just around the corner.

They're a brand new series of deep-dive workshop sessions taking an in-depth look at practical games design topics. We’re working with the finest industry experts to create professional, half-day activities featuring tutorials, lectures and breakout groups, all accessible from the comfort of your home office.

There are four workshops taking place on December 1-3 where you can expect to explore a range of key games design topics, from game design to monetisation and investment. Today, we'd like to introduce Joakim Achren, Founder and CEO at Elite Game Developers, who will lead a session titled How To Raise Investor Money For Your Game on Wednesday December 2nd from 09:00 - 12:00 (UK time).

Joakim Achren is an entrepreneur, with fifteen years of experience in running venture-backed startups. Joakim has gone through the fundraising process several times and raised over $50 million in venture funding over a 15-year career as an entrepreneur in two venture-backed startups. Now Joakim is building Elite Game Developers, which is an online resource and startup school for gaming entrepreneurs.

Tell us a bit about your company

Elite Game Developers is an online resource and startup school for gaming entrepreneurs.

What does your role entail?

I'm basically the content creator and coach at Elite Game Developers. If you go and check out our content, it's all based on my knowledge of entrepreneurship from gaming.

Is there anything you’re working on currently that you’d like our readers to know about?

I'm building a community of angel investors, where I share knowledge about becoming an angel investor in the games business. I believe that it's highly valuable for entrepreneurs to start diversifying their wealth, and one of the best ways to become active is to start investing in other gaming startups. This community will be launching in December 2020. You can find our more about the community here.

What topic will you be covering in your MasterClass?

We'll be covering the investors and what they are looking for. Then we're going to dissect the entrepreneur's pitch to the investors: what makes for an attractive pitch and what measures should entrepreneurs take to make their game studio more eligible for investment capital.

Finally, we're going to cover the investment deal terms; What are all the funding instruments out there, what the terms for investment would look like, and we'll go through several real-life examples of how fundraising has happened in gaming.

Who is this MasterClass for?

For entrepreneurs who'd want to raise funding for their games studio. You could be a solo indie developer or have an experienced game team working beside you; all this information will be quite valuable for any kind of fundraising.

Why is it important for your games industry peers to gain a deeper understanding of your chosen topic?

Outside capital is the best way to quickly scale up any kind of business, and I believe that in games, where a hit game can have outside returns in a matter of a year or two, outside capital should be considered.
Tell us a little bit about the key takeaways people can expect from the session

Participants will gather knowledge on what investors of different types are looking for. They'll gain an understanding of what the next steps are to pitch your company to investors, how investment terms work, and what is fair and not so fair for either party.

Finally, what are your thoughts on the games industry going forward? What major trends do you predict over the next 12 months?

I believe the games industry has jumped immensely forward during the COVID stay-at-home phase, as more people have turned to games. This trend will continue and we're going to see more millions of people coming over to gaming.

Mobile will be the main stage for future growth, with more cross-platform opportunities arising through cloud-based gaming.

Since gaming is showing such unprecedented growth numbers, all the world's investment capital is looking to games, to fuel the next big billion-dollar growth titles. This is an excellent time to be in gaming, and the entrepreneurs with a strong pitch will be able to raise substantial capital with valuations that are very favorable to the entrepreneurs.

Book today!

If you like the sound of Achren's MasterClass, be sure to book your place now - remember tickets are limited so purchase your ticket today to avoid disappointment!

Multi-buy deals and corporate discount

Want to attend multiple MasterClasses? Book three workshops and get the fourth FREE!

Booking for multiple people? Take advantage of our 30% corporate discount for groups of six or more people from the same company.

For multi-buy or group discounts, please email sally.kevan@steelmedia.co.uk to discuss your bespoke package.