BITKRAFT Ventures Raises $165 Million in Funding for Video Game Investment

Bitkraft Ventures has raised $165 million for their fund, a hefty $40 million over the initial goal.

BITKRAFT is a venture capital fund that focuses on gaming, esports, and interactive media. They began Pre-Seed Funding back in 2017 and have since consistently built up a network of over 50 companies. The limited partners in the Bitkraft fund, include Carolwood, the family office of Bruce Karsh; Declaration Partners, the investment firm backed by the family office of David Rubenstein; JS Capital, the investment firm of Jonathan Soros; as well as corporate investors such as Adidas, WPP, Advance, and Logitech.

A New Venture in Gaming

Jen Hilgers, BITKRAFT Ventures founding partner, stated that “We are grateful to our investors for their confidence in our team’s ability to identify talent, trends, and opportunities in the gaming and esports space. At BITKRAFT, we don’t just support forward-thinking entrepreneurs with capital, but also provide experience, resources, and our global network. While we are living in challenging times, our industry is experiencing strong tailwinds and unprecedented opportunities. There is no better time for BITKRAFT to invest.”

Jen Hilgers was the former CEO and founder of ESL, a major esports organization that hosts the world’s largest CS: GO events.

Gaming is constantly growing and evolving, emerging in more mainstream markets than ever before. The newfound growth has brought forth even more innovation in how gaming can become profitable, and innovative. Initially, the investment firm focused on game studios such as Playable Worlds and Manticore games but has since expanded. BITKRAFT Ventures led the Series A financing round for a company named Gamezop, which accrued $4.3 million in investment. Gamezop focuses on embedding HTML5 games into web browsers and mobile apps to improve engagement and generate ad revenue.

Gamezop CEO and Co-Founder Yashash Agarwal explained that “Embedded games are developed on HTML5 and work seamlessly within apps that integrate our games platform. The thought process was to add tangible value for all stakeholders in the model: our partner apps see a 40% jump in engagement time after they add us. In addition, we share 50% of the revenue we make with them. For us, it means piggybacking on the distribution network of our partner apps, and acquiring users with zero spending.”

Companies are placing financial backing to emerging gaming companies, only validating what gamers have known for a long time. Gaming is a 160 billion dollar industry that has transcended the image of stale basements and poor hygiene. Firms such as BITKRAFT make it possible for small organizations and companies to get their ideas off the ground.