Last week curated look at the deals that moved the needle in gaming:
Funding & M&A:
Mahesh Babu takes a stake in Mumbai studio Shortgun, backing Project Takedown. Undisclosed.
Sachin Tendulkar joins Hyderabad-based Metasports Interactive as strategic investor and brand ambassador for cricket strategy game Hitwicket. Undisclosed.
$1M, Rise of Fearless raises to expand its gaming platform.
Korean studio Pepper Games lands a Series A from Stonebridge and Horizon. Undisclosed.
Tencent acquires a 26.875% stake in Jiangxin Huyu, the new company from the founder of Jiangxin Quyou. Undisclosed.
Fund Launch:
$150M, e2vc launches a fund to back Turkish games and tech companies.
Adjacent Capital:
$1.3B, fal raises a Series F led by Bessemer at a $16B valuation, double its April mark. Generative media inference, gaming adjacent.
$15M, Betski lands a commitment from Nimbus Capital for an iGaming push.
Developing Story:
Silver Lake and Saudi Arabia’s PIF are in talks to buy Unity at around $25B. The same consortium took EA private.
Ubisoft is among multiple bidders for Arkane Lyon as Xbox weighs selling the Dishonored studio, per Bloomberg.
TL;DR
→ EA’s new owners are in talks for Unity at $25B
→ Xbox is weighing a sale of Arkane Lyon, Ubisoft is bidding
→ 2 Indian celebrities backed game studios in one week
→ $150M fund launched for Turkish games
→ $1M was the only disclosed raise into a game studio
Curated weekly at iCartic.com
tCARe, Cartic P