Griffin Gaming Partners Raises $750M For Gaming-Focused VC Fund

Griffin Gaming Partners recently announced it had closed a $750 million venture capital fund to invest in the gaming space, making it the biggest fund in the video game industry. This is the second gaming-focused fund to be launched by GGP, which now has over $1 billion in assets that will be used to invest in the gaming industry as well as gaming-adjacent markets.

GGP said that the fund was oversubscribed, meaning the amount of money they were being offered exceeded their goal. Back in 2020, the firm launched a different fund that brought $235 million into the company.

“It means it’s a great time to be a founder. When I think about the history of games, it has had a perception from investor mindsets of being a very hits-driven business, where it’s hard to make money,” said Nick Tuosto, an advisor for Griffin Gaming Partners. “Most of the folks who invest in this category do it only for a percentage of their time. They’re not all in on games. We cover this space closely. It takes expertise, relationships, and dedicated focus.”

Now is as good a time as ever to invest in the video game industry. According to Newzoo, the global gaming market will generate $256 billion in annual consumer spending by 2025. On top of that, DFC Intelligence reports that 3.1 billion people around the globe play video games for almost one hour a day.

The Profit‘s Take:

I was floored when I saw this. The implication of larger funds is that there is going to be continued consolidation at large valuations. To deploy a billion dollars into game companies and game development, you have to believe that the big guys are going to continue to acquire the little guys. The struggle will also become finding people. It’s hard to find good people for your gaming company nowadays. With all the money in the system that goes towards gaming talent, it’s clearly a great time to be a developer or a publisher. The level of competition for talent is going to go sky high, which will benefit individuals. I am not going to fault them for this, but nowhere in this piece did Griffin Gaming Partners say, “we are going to invest in the most fun games out there.” I worry that half this fund will end up going to P2E games. Either way, I love seeing this because Griffin is a great group. We will see them become a part of a lot of competitive deals as a result of this influx of capital. This also puts additional pressure on the more traditional fund of funds that occasionally do direct deals. As a consequence, we will likely see more direct deals coming from groups that may have worked through funds in the past.

(All information was provided by The Hollywood Reporter and VentureBeat)