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Former Riot Games execs raise $55 million in Series A for new studio Believer

Investments came from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bitkraft, 1Up Ventures and more

Date Type Companies involved Size
March 7th, 2023 investment Believer
Lightspeed Venture Partners
$55m
Former Riot Games execs raise $55 million in Series A for new studio Believer

The Believer Company, a new games company headquartered in LA and founded by former Riot executives, has completed its Series A funding round with a total investment of $55 million.

The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with other participants including Bitkraft, Riot Games, 1Up Ventures, Cleveland Avenue, Michael D. Eisner's Tornante and Andreessen Horowitz.

An experienced team

Currently, Believer’s leadership team comprises veteran developers and producers such as former Riot Games VP Michael Chow, now serving as Believer CEO. Funding from the round will go towards building a bigger team - hiring is taking place now - and creating an open world game using an original IP. Believer promises a title where "player choices matter".

Believer CPO Steven Snow is also formerly of Riot Games and was among its founding members. He was the executive producer of League of Legends.

"Bringing free-to-play to North America and Europe with League of Legends really changed the landscape of how games as a service could work. It is our privilege to have the opportunity to help shape the future responsibly," Snow said.

Landon McDowell, formerly of Microsoft, Riot Games and Linden Lab, has joined Believer as CTO; Jeremy Vanhoozer joins as CCO, previously working at Bungie and Electronic Arts. Other leadership roles have been taken by Tim Hsu, Shankar Gupta-Harrison, Grace Park and Jeff Jew.

"Players are the best audience to serve in the world. They’re noble, smart, discerning, and infinitely inventive," Chow said. “We look forward to growing our team with people as passionate as we are and we are actively seeking like-minded talent to believe with us."

Lightspeed Venture partner Moritz Baier-Lentz commented: "The team already assembled at Believer stands ready to change the industry through an unyielding devotion to players. As a life-long player and 'believer' myself who’s followed and admired the studio’s founders' work for years, I know Michael, Snow, and their incredible team will make the next big thing by doing the right thing, at every turn. I’m inspired by their vision and honoured to help make it possible."

Last week, Room 8 Group unveiled its new studio Heroic, focusing on high-end trailer production for mobile, PC, and console titles.


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