MTG Announces Investments in 7 Gaming and Esports Startups

Modern Times Group MTG AB has announced its latest VC Fund investments ahead of its Q2 financial report. Investments in the first half of 2019 amount to a total of USD 11 million including capital commitments and span start-up and growth companies in the US and Germany.

Among the investments are Redwood City-based Dorian, Austin based game developer Tonk Tonk Games, gamer rewards platform Playfull from Los Angeles, German game studio Sviper founded by Ex-InnoGamers and San Diego-based GoMeta.

MTG owns 100% of Swedish DreamHack and over 82% of German founded ESL, the two largest brands in esports worldwide. Its largest VC investments in terms of estimated value are BITKRAFT fund LP positions, AppOnboard, Phoenix Labs, the Play Ventures fund LP position and Sviper. It also owns majority positions in San Francisco-based game studio and publisher Kongregate and German game developer and publisher InnoGames.

“Gaming and esport is the future of entertainment, and we are excited to invest in what we believe are seven of the most promising early stage startups with excellent teams, products and ideas,” Jørgen Madsen Lindemann, President and CEO of MTG said.

“We are already seeing attractive valuation upticks based on latest financing rounds in our investments, such as Phoenix Labs, AppOnboard and the BITKRAFT seed fund. Deal flow and value creation opportunities continue to improve now that we have established MTG as a leading games & esports VC in the West,” Arnd Benninghoff, EVP of esports and games at MTG said.