Hey Friends, greetings from Bangalore 💗 (Back in city from Gamescom)

Here’s your last 2 weeks curated look at the deals that moved the needle in gaming.

TL;DR

$1.5B+ → Alibaba / Lingxi Games
Up to $215M → Blacknut
$250M → Makers Fund IV
$400M → AppsFlyer credit facility
$27.1M → Delphi Interactive
$18M → W4 Games / Godot
$5.8M → Entity
$3M → Surge Games
$3M → EG7 / Cold Iron assets
$1M → GYLD
Up to $10M → Qiiwi UA facility
Studio capital → Magic Potion, Black Pony, Pretty Cool, FarBridge and Terrible Toybox
M&A → SOFTGAMES/Funday and Agis/Maze Theory
Independence → Compulsion Games exits Xbox
Indie ecosystem → CAA launches Frame1Games

Funding and M&A:

$1.5B+ → Alibaba is divesting its full stake in Lingxi Games to private equity firm Trustar Capital. Reuters reported Alibaba could receive more than $2B, while other reports put the deal value above $1.5B.
Up to $215M → French cloud gaming platform Blacknut receives strategic backing from Digital Alpha Advisors. The capital is aimed at product development, content, infrastructure and international expansion.
$27.1M → US games publisher Delphi Interactive raises capital from 13 accredited investors, disclosed through an SEC Form D.
$18M → W4 Games raises a Tencent-led Series B. The company plans to expand its international team and accelerate the commercial ecosystem around the open-source Godot Engine.
$5.8M → Dublin-based Entity raises seed funding to build a browser platform capable of delivering console-quality games through WebGPU and WebAssembly.
$3M → Türkiye-based Surge Games raises pre-seed funding led by Play Ventures to scale its AI-native approach to mobile puzzle game development.
$3M → Enad Global 7 closes its acquisition of the Aliens: Fireteam Elite back catalog plus publishing and development assets connected to Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2.
€2.2M → KAZIMI raises an oversubscribed pre-seed round led by Market One Capital to fight bot-generated noise in first-party mobile marketing data.
$1M → Australia-based GYLD raises an oversubscribed seed round led by Kameha Ventures.

The capital will help expand Critical Compass, GYLD’s proprietary games research platform. The system was previously used to identify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 as a project with strong potential.

Magic Potion Games → undisclosed Series A from Square Enix, 1AM Gaming, 1Up Ventures and Konvoy Ventures.

The round comes as its Club Penguin-style social world Imagine Island exits beta after passing one million players organically.

Black Pony Immersive → milestone-based funding from an undisclosed publisher.

The studio was founded by Dishonored creative director Harvey Smith and fellow Arkane Austin veteran Ben Horne and has been operating quietly since 2025.

Pretty Cool Games → undisclosed investment from Coreblazer, Hypergryph’s investment arm.

The UK studio was founded by Human: Fall Flat veterans Sitara Shefta and Will Dudley and is developing an original physics-driven PC and console title.

FarBridge → undisclosed strategic investment from Enduring Games.

The funding will support development of Job Simulator: Human Relations and allowed FarBridge to cancel its Kickstarter and refund backers.

Terrible Toybox → undisclosed private investor funding for Thimbleweed Park 2.

Ron Gilbert opted for a private funding structure instead of crowdfunding or a traditional publishing agreement.

M&A and Independence:

SOFTGAMES acquires Funday Games’ complete Instant Games portfolio → undisclosed.

The transaction covers 19 titles across puzzle, arcade, trivia and creative games, including Chess Quest.

Agis is acquiring Maze Theory → undisclosed.

Maze Theory, known for titles including Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom and Doctor Who: The Edge of Time, will retain its own brand and team.

Compulsion Games completes its management buyout from Xbox → undisclosed.

The South of Midnight developer is independent again and has regained ownership of its original IP including Contrast, We Happy Few and South of Midnight.

UA Financing:

Up to $10M → Qiiwi Games enters a non-dilutive UA financing partnership with Plan A Games for Wordington Solitaire.

The facility can scale to $10M if agreed performance targets are met.

Fixed Income / Adjacent Financing:

$400M → AppsFlyer reportedly secures a credit facility from Bank Leumi.

The financing follows the company’s earlier $2.7B transaction involving investors including Moloco, Google, Meta and Unity.

Fund Launches:

$250M → Makers Fund closes Fund IV.

The games and interactive entertainment investor now manages approximately $1.5B and has backed more than 90 portfolio companies.

CAA launches Frame1Games.

The year-long indie funding and accelerator initiative comes with a multi-million-dollar capital commitment alongside mentorship, marketing, distribution and access to CAA’s entertainment network.

Platform and Regulatory Moves:

Apple cuts the cost of alternative distribution in the EU.

The previous Core Technology Fee is being replaced with a 5% Core Technology Commission on digital transactions in apps distributed through alternative marketplaces or the web.

Apple has four months to redesign its App Tracking Transparency consent prompt following action from Germany’s Federal Cartel Office.

The regulator argued that Apple’s current implementation could steer users differently when choosing whether to allow tracking by third-party apps.

Earlier August Carry-over:

$19.7M → AI motion-capture company Kikitora discloses funding through an SEC filing.

Its technology converts ordinary video into 3D performance capture data and can operate offline with tools including Unity, Unreal, Maya and Blender.

$9M → Singapore-based games publisher 4Divinity receives additional investment from ADATA Technology at a $350M post-money valuation.
$1M → Polish developer FunVenture closes seed financing to expand its project pipeline and scale existing titles.

Stay ahead. Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, CARtic P

Business of Games

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