Week In Views
Raising investment in 2025 and Pokémon Go's $8.8 billion milestone | Week in Views
The Pocketgamer.biz team pick their highlights from the headlines this week and deliver the stories behind the stories
Funding News
Turkish studio Circle Games raises $7.25m to expand puzzle portfolio
Funds will go towards upcoming projects as well as growing its development team
Building And Bolstering
French dev Million Victories secures almost $40m in funding from Haveli Investments
The studio’s flagship mobile game Million Lords: World Conquest has 100,000 monthly players
State Of Investment
Aonic on the state of games investment in 2025 and tips for raising funds
Aonic co-founder and chief product officer Olliver Heins offers investment advice and thoughts on the state of the market at Develop: Brighton
Moving To Mobile
Global Worldwide closes funding round led by Bitkraft Ventures in mobile manoeuvre
The oversubscribed round was "tough" in the current AI landscape, according to chairman and CEO Will Harbin
Funding News
Grand Mobile raises $750,000 to grow flagship title Grand Mobile
The deal closed with the company valued at $75m
Funding For Games
Google Play’s Indie Games Fund returns to Latin America with $2 million for 10 studios
Selected studios will receive between $150,000 and $200,000 to grow their game
Investment News
Behold Ventures raises $58m to fund European game studios
The firm has invested $21m in 18 companies since 2021
New Offerings
Former CVCapital partner Jim Ying launches games M&A and investment advisory firm Mihada Capital
The company specialises in offering financial advisory services to businesses in games, ad-tech, and digital media
Studio Closure
Hypercasual game studio Yayy closes
Following Yayy's closure, CEO Ziad Talge co-founded MyLuigi with AI and cloud expert Sukhdeep Johar, securing $125,000 in funding
Funding News
Motorica raises €5m to accelerate AI-powered character animation and expand globally
“We're not here to upend the animation workflow, we're here to liberate it,” said Motorica CEO Willem Demmers
Root Raising
Social platform Root raises $9m in seed funding ahead of closed beta
Funding was led by Headline Ventures and Konvoy Ventures
Funding News
Habby invests $2m in Istanbul studio Mavis Games
Casual games developer aims to expand its team as it looks to scale its portfolio
Funding For Games
Bigger Games raises $25m to fuel global expansion
Studio set to scale its currently soft-launched mobile game Kitchen Masters
Anzu And Amex
Amex Ventures invests in in-game ads firm Anzu
The investment will help Anzu scale faster in key segments
Funding News
Candy Crush veterans secure $4.6m for Studio555’s interior design game app
Developer plans to launch the app next year
Finding Funds
Former Tacticool devs at Nice Plans Studio secure $3m for 3v3 shooter Ricochet Squad
Studio claims day one player-to-payer conversion rate is 4% to 5% in soft launch
Strong Soft Launch
Nice Plans Studio's ambitions to independently scale a new shooter in a challenging mobile market
Co-founder and CEO Roman Malakhov talks metrics, ambitions and becoming a "fully independent studio"
Funding News
Team Angels launches to back early-stage startups in Mumbai
The initiative offers equity funding between ₹40 lakhs ($45,000) and ₹1.5 crore ($175,000)
Conference Roundup
6 takeaways from PGC Barcelona: A bustling industry hub, DTC hits overdrive, and AI hype continues
A look at some of the trends and key talks from our debut conference in the Catalonia capital
Funding For Games
Yarnhub Animation raises $2.1m to develop WWII title
The team also plans to develop games using Unreal Engine 5, the same technology behind its animated films
Industry Insights
VCs launching credit funds: Opportunities and conflicts
Mobile Finance Collective's Martin Macmillan on the growing trend of venture capital firms launching credit funds to finance user acquisition
Funding News
Oncade raises $4m seed round to empower game developers and communities
The platform will allow developers and players to create, sell, and earn through affiliate roles
Funding News
PlaySafe ID raises $1.1m to fight cheating and toxicity in online games
“This is now more important than ever before,” said PlaySafe ID CEO Andrew Wailes
Investment News
Voya Games raises $5m to build player-owned economies
Funds will go towards expanding its user base and supporting the growth of its debut game Craft World
Investment News
Super Banana secures funding to expand and innovate in the casual puzzle genre
“We’ve seen what works, and more importantly, we’ve seen what hasn’t”
Funding News
Studio42 raises $3.6m to accelerate mobile game development
The company is developing its first original game, blending classic puzzle mechanics with a modern hybrid-casual approach
Investment News
TaleMonster Games secures $7m seed funding to boost puzzle game development
The studio currently has 17 employees across multiple cities and aims to double its staff by next year
Seed Round Secured
Layer AI closes $6.5m seed round with generative AI tools geared to mobile devs
The funding will be used to further develop features and scale up team size
Funding News
Alpaka Games secures $2.2m to accelerate global expansion
The studio is focused on player-first experiences in the hybrid action genre
Funding News
Sett secures $15m to expand AI-powered platform for mobile game studios
Funds will go towards team expansion and growth acceleration
Investment News
Fuse Games secures $7m to expand mobile game development
Funds will go towards supporting original IP development and team expansion
Marvellous Mena
GEM Capital MD and Jetapult CEO talk MENA investments and unlocking the region's potential
Roman Gurskiy and Sharan Tulsiani discuss what they look for in startups, common founder mistakes, and how MENA game studios can attract global capital
Pgc Jordan
Game incubators in MENA and the risks of "polishing the wrong thing"
GIGS co-founder Ashraf Abi-Said and LUDiMUS Inc CEO and co-founder Sho Sato discussed the value of incubators at PGC Jordan 2024
Investment News
True Gamers secures $5m to expand across MENA and Europe
The company previously landed $45m investment to build esports facilities in the KSA
Investment News
Hogo Games secures funding at $5m valuation
Funds will go towards developing new projects and growing existing titles on mobile and PC
Pgc Jordan
Investor AMA: "When it comes to platforms, we think that mobile is the way to go"
Speakers from Merak Capital, Tamatem and Walking Squid Advisory offered funding tips at PGC Jordan 2024
Funding For Games
Blue Ocean Games launches $30m fund to support indie game developers
Funding is tied to objective market-validation milestones
Investment News
Rise of Fearless launches with $700,000 funding goal to empower African gamers
Funding will go towards improving gameplay and expanding into the web3 ecosystem
Finding Funds
UK Games Fund re-opens applications for two funds, offering grants of up to £150,000
The Content Fund offers a maximum £150,000 while the Prototype Fund peaks at £30,000
Mena Month
Investment opportunities in MENA: "From an investor perspective this is the best time to be deploying by far"
Panellists took to the stage at the Dubai GameExpo Summit powered by Pocket Gamer Connects in 2024 to discuss mobile, web3, AI and investments in the MENA region
Funding News
Boby.ai lands $1.25m to build AI-powered mobile apps
Company co-founded and led by former Playable Factory CEO Gökçe Nur Oğuz
Mena Month
The big deals that have shaped the Middle East's games industry over the past year
We take a look at the acquisitions, partnerships and other deals in the Middle East's growing market
Market Report
Gaming VC deals rose 35% in Q1 2025 to $373m
But deal value was down 41% year-over-year
Investment News
Argentina studio Agonalea Games raises $2m to shake up tower defence genre
Investor Mika Games backs studio and its hybridcasual title Punko.io
Supercell Investments
Why Supercell wants to invest in games companies
Supercell Investments lead Jaakko Harlas tells PocketGamer.biz what its looking for, what it offers, and taking more shots at goal
Supercent Game Challenge
Supercent announces 4th Supercent Game Challenge to discover future hitmakers
Enter the Supercent Game Challenge - with a prize pool of $2,000,000
Deal Tracker
Show Me The Money: Scopely acquires Niantic's games business for $3.5bn, and Tencent invests $1.25bn in Ubisoft in March 2025
Our deal tracker highlights the key acquisitions, investments, and partnerships from the last month
Welsh Waves
Welsh generative AI games studio 10six Games comes out of stealth with six-figure investment
Susan Cummings, Lee Cummings and Nick Button-Brown are all involved, as are "so many women"
Finding Funds
HYBE Interactive Media secures $21m to bring K-pop artists to games
Anticipation for MMORPG Architect: Land of Exile played a key role in the latest deal