Mergermarket Interview: Mighty Bear Games plans to financing round by year-end, considers…
Mergermarket Interview: Mighty Bear Games plans to financing round by year-end, considers acquisitions — CEO
Singapore-based studio Mighty Bear Games (MBG) plans to launch a financing round in the fourth quarter of this year, and is considering acquiring, co-founder and CEO Simon Davis told Mergermarket.
MBG, which builds next-generation, mobile-first multi-platform games, is targeting venture capital firms specialising in gaming, Davis said, adding that it will seek an amount in the double-digit-million US dollar range. Details of the round will be finalised by the end of September, he said.
The financing efforts will be managed in-house, he said. He mentioned that on 7 February, MBG announced the appointment of Head of Finance and Partnerships Teri Tan, who will support the company in its future growth plans.
In an approach received in 2021, a potential buyer valued MBG at USD 120m, Davis said. The company’s three founders, Benjamin Chevalier, CTO Fadzuli Said and Davis, hold the company’s majority stake, he added.
Founded in 2016, MBG raised USD 10m in a token sale led by Framework, Sfermion, Play Ventures and Mirana in July 2022. Its most recent equity round, for EUR 2.5m, took place in 2018, Davis said.
The proceeds of the round will finance the scaling up of the business, including expanding its team, he said. The 55-person company has 20 open positions at the moment, he added.
Meanwhile, MBG is considering acquiring three to five gaming studios in the next three years, Davis said. It looks at studios with between five and 25 employees, located in Southeast Asia and possibly also in other locations, he said. It could make acquisitions to expand in Germany and Spain as an alternative to the plan under consideration at present to set up offices in those regions, he added.
Mighty Bear has a list of acquisition targets on its radar, and it will look to progress down this route after the financing round, which is expected to finance potential deals, he said.
Davis did not disclose the firm’s revenue figure. Its current focus is on growing and on the launch of its next game, he said, noting that it was profitable until last year.
MBG is expanding into the decentralized gaming industry and is preparing to launch its first Web3 title, Mighty Action Heroes, in the second part of this year, he said. The next title will take approximately 12 months to develop, he added. To date MBG has launched five mobile games on the Apple App and Google Play stores.
MBG in building a “fun and decentralized gaming ecosystem that empowers layers through digital ownership”, of which Mighty Action Heroes is the start of this vision, per a company press release. It also reported that according to DappRadar, investment in decentralised gaming remains high with a total of USD 156m invested in blockchain gaming and metaverse projects.
Davis has been working in the gaming industry since 2004, he said. He has experience at studios including Xbox, Bigpoing, Ubisoft and King.
To accelerate its growth in the decentralized gaming industry, in February the company appointed, beside Tan, COO Assaf Cohen, Head of Growth Karolina Cooper, and Web3 Lead Michael Arnold, among others.
by Laura Larghi
01:00 CET, 13 March 2023
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