Mark Cai’s Post

The games industry has to move the needle. Some data shows that VC investment is coming back slowly. Seriously, we missed covering your investment news! The following list of investors will come to the Mobidictum Conference. Looking for money? Talk with these people: The list is in alphabetic order. -500 Emerging Europe -Atanova Ventures -Boğaziçi Ventures -Games Ventures -Griffing Gaming Partners -Laton Ventures -Ludus Ventures -Play Ventures -PlayGate Ventures -PvX Ventures -ScaleX Ventures -WePlay Ventures Is your fund looking for new game companies? A lot will come! Let us know. #investment

We announced some big news today! Blockcast has raised $2.85M led by Lattice Fund. The round also included participation from Protocol Labs, Finality Capital Partners, AllianceDAO, Zee Prime Capital, RW3 Ventures, and angel investors such as Anatoly Yakovenko, founder of Solana. It's exciting to pull back the curtain and let the broadcast and streaming industry know there is a new player on the block. But it's also important for us to keep explaining exactly what we are trying to do. Content delivery networks (CDN) are the backbone of internet infrastructure. Without the capacity provided by these massive global networks, the internet we know and love today, the internet that gives us streaming video and game downloads and immersive experiences, wouldn’t really be possible. But the capacity is finite even as demand is growing. And only a handful of companies control that infrastructure. What we want to do is decentralize the process of content delivery by enabling ordinary people to participate in that delivery. This is not peer-to-peer. Blockcast is leveraging multicast and the SVTA's Open Caching specifications to create a decentralized content delivery network. Integrated into that is a Web3 framework that rewards people for distributing content to their community from their Blockcast node. Finally, Blockcast hopes to pull in all of that capacity into an Open Capacity Marketplace where network operators, content owners, OTA broadcasters, CDNs, and Blockcast users (as part of a Blockcast Network) can form contractual relationships to deliver content. We are very excited about this raise which gives us a lot of runway to get key technologies finalized and deployed. In fact, there will be some announcements coming soon which will enable you to pre-order a Blockcast Node so that you can help deliver content (and have a better streaming experience in your own home as well). Read more about the fundraise (and our mission) here:

🚨 We are excited to announce BITKRAFT Ventures Fund III! 🚨 We are incredibly proud of this accomplishment and cannot wait to invest in forward-thinking, innovative start-ups bringing synthetic reality to life. From our CEO Jens Hilgers: What we’re particularly proud of with BITKRAFT is that we’ve built a fantastic culture that resonates well with founders because we are straightforward, honest people that have been in the trenches. Culture is very easy to destroy. But it takes a very long time to build. And in our business, trust, integrity and being good people, besides being good investors, and making the right decision fundamentally, is incredibly important. We are as committed to — and optimistic about — the future of the games industry as we were from the inception of BITKRAFT in 2016. We’ve seen continued growth across all major game platforms, in metrics including user engagement, activity levels, and monetization. Newly formed game studios have seen substantial break out successes over the last years, and the advent of AI in game production further benefits new upstarts in the space. Additionally, we have witnessed increased interest in game content beyond incumbents from media and tech giants, as well as private equity firms entering the landscape of potential buyers further expanding the exit landscape. Click below 👇 for more!

From Reddit to Women's sports, this investor got million-dollar bets. Alexis Ohanian Sr. is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded Reddit, Inc., along with Steve Huffman and Aaron Swartz. Reddit joined the Y Combinator's first batch of start-ups in the summer of 2005 but got sold to Condé Nast for around $10 Million in 2006, and eventually got IPO'ed this Mar'24 on NASDAQ. Ohanian then co-founded the early-stage VC firm Initialized Capital with Garry Tan (currently CEO of Y Combinator) in 2011 with a $7 million investment vehicle. Ohanian also launched a venture capital firm with Elisabeth Garvin called Seven Seven Six 7️⃣7️⃣6️⃣ in 2021. Ohanian has been an active investor since he sold his first company, Reddit, in 2006. When Ohanian co-founded Initialized Capital, he made several seed investments in startups like Instacart, Cruise, Opendoor, etc., and made substantial returns. Ohanian has made Millions by investing in people and their ideas that others overlooked and undervalued. The Reddit co-founder was an early investor in the cryptocurrency blockchain asset, Ethereum. He purchased 50,000 ETH in 2014. His investment of $15,000 in Ethereum surged by over 546,000% in 2023! Ohanian has been a major booster of women’s sports, from his investment in Angel City to his public support of his wife, tennis legend Serena Williams. After Angel City, Ohanian has invested on another sport: women's track. He is passionate about elevating marginalized communities, helping individuals fund their tech projects, and fighting for other rights. He believes in getting in on startups as quickly as possible and on the lowest floor possible. The best thing about Alexis Ohanian is that he continues to pursue projects that he not only truly believes in but that also make a difference in the world. What do you find most interesting about Ohanian's investment journey? TDV Partners #angelinvesting #VC #startupinvesting #business #entrepreneurship

We've transitioned from just having users to now having a growing base of monthly paying customers. It's a testament to the value Leeg is providing! Plus, the interest from users trying to hack the system for high scores and wanting to join our team shows the engagement and enthusiasm for what we're building. We're on the right track! If anyone is interested in our journey, we are looking forward to having a chat, especially early-stage investors. #StartupJourney #investment #mobilegames #gaming #investors #investing #startup

#fundingalert 💼Company: AVALON 💰Funding: $10Million ⚡Round: New Round 👥Investors: BITKRAFT Ventures, Hashed, Spartan Capital , LiquidX, Momentum6, Foresight Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Spartan Capital AVALON Corp. is creating a platform and tools that will transform the creation of virtual worlds and games. The company’s strategy is based more in the magic of game creation than in the metaverse banking industry. The business plans to utilise the money to produce its first game, which will bear its name. It is a multiplayer online game with world growth and asset interoperability that is geared towards web2 and web3 gamer appeal. Sean Pinnock, Alexander Flower, Cuyler Jones Read more - https://lnkd.in/gi-9zYhQ To share your startup story write us on - [email protected] #AVALON #creativeplatform #bussiness #metaverse #web3 #gamer #funding #startupnews #fundingnews #news #startuprise

Notable VC firm Andreessen Horowitz recently raised $7.2 billion for a variety of venture strategies, with $600 million being dedicated towards games. The blog post by Ben Horowitz mentions how each submarket of American Dynamism, Apps, Games, Infrastructure, and Growth have become as big as the original entire VC market. As a result, the company has grown dedicated specific teams in each area rather than trying to cross-train someone in multiple submarkets, like Games and Infrastructure for example. According to Jonathan Lai, this brings a16z Games assets under management (AUM) to over $1.2 billion and this A16Z GAMES FUND TWO will also focus on early-stage founders in games. Jon mentions that now is the best time to build a game startup due to higher player count, more tools & tech, and more funding than ever before. A16Z GAMES will continue to invest across three core areas of games studios building new types of games, games infrastructure companies powering developers, and games x consumer companies powering the ecosystem of consumer apps around games. Will be interesting to see other funds in gaming to see if they progress similarly. Follow #MoreMark for #Business content in #Gaming, #Esports, and #Creators!

Patron closed its sophomore fund at $100 million last week and I sat down with co-founder and general partner Jason Yeh to talk about how he convinced the UCLA Endowment to invest, the next generation of consumers and how his experiences at Riot Games shaped his investment thesis. "One of the unique advantages we have compared to other early-stage investors is because we come from Riot and Discord we have a sense for how this younger generation interacts online," he told me. "Our thesis is a long-term thesis: this generation of consumers growing up online are in college or already working, so it’s inevitable that our worldview comes true.” Read more on Venture Capital Journal. #venturecapital

Great conversation for Ep 12 of Inside the Hutt with Kenny Rowe and Nick Simmons from Octu Ventures (https://octu.ventures/) to discuss all things Urbit and venture DAOs. Topics included: -Kenny & Nick's history including early work in the Urbit ecosystem -What is Urbit and why is it an interesting category for startup investing -Why has developer and investor activity picked up around Urbit -What is the overlap between Urbit and crypto -Octu's investment strategy and focus -How Octu is structured as an investment DAO and the benefits of utilizing this approach vs. traditional GP/LP structure -Octu's incubation from Hydra Ventures Apple: https://lnkd.in/gbpdvYYe Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gSWUQWii Hutt Capital

Officially hit 20k followers!!!! 😎 For those of you who are new to my page WELCOME! Here is a little bit about me: - I'm a Partner at Red Beard Ventures (RBV), a Web3 fund with over $25M of capital - I lead the RBV Syndicate, which invests in startups at any stage and sector. We have invested in companies such as LayerZero Labs, Anduril Industries, SpaceX, Truflation, Major League Pickleball, and so many more! - The syndicate has over 4,300 LPs, made over 210+ investments, and deployed over $50M. - As an advocate for women in investing, I founded The Girls Table, a platform (for men and women) boosting entrepreneurs, creators, and investors through my podcast, Newsletter, and IRL events. - I've had the honor of speaking at events like VeeCon, NFT NYC, and Consensus - Have been recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30 and Business Insider's Rising Stars of VCs Follow me to learn more about venture capital, receive opportunities to invest, and be educated on the way syndicates work. #venturecapital #vc #angelinvestor #investing #finance