Season 4, Episode 12: The mobile gaming fundraising market (with Annina Salvén)

My guest on this week's episode of the podcast is Annina Salvén, the COO of BIT ODD, a Helsinki-based gaming studio that was recently profiled by the WSJ. Bit Odd raised $18MM in a seed extension this month, following on from the €5MM seed round it raised in 2022. My fund, Heracles Capital, is an investor in both rounds. I asked Annina to join me on the podcast to discuss the current state of venture fundraising for mobile gaming. Specifically, we cover: Why Anniina returned to mobile gaming, given the challenges; How the 2016-era of mobile gaming compares to today; The distribution challenges now relative to 2016-2018; The opportunities in mobile gaming now from a revenue growth perspective; How mobile gaming start-ups should think about exit opportunities; The process for BIT ODD in raising its Seed extension; What mobile gaming start-ups should look for in an investor; The cross-platform gaming opportunity;  Whether games publishing is still viable; Helsinki's evolution as a mobile games development hub. Thanks to the sponsors of this week’s episode of the Mobile Dev Memo podcast: Vibe. Vibe is the leading Streaming TV ad platform for small and medium-sized businesses looking for actionable advertising campaign performance. ⁠⁠⁠Clarisights⁠⁠⁠. Marketing analytics that makes it easy to get answers, iterate fast, and show the impact of your work. Go to⁠⁠⁠ clarisights.com/demo⁠⁠⁠ to try it out for free. INCRMNTAL⁠⁠. True attribution measures incrementality, always on. Interested in sponsoring the Mobile Dev Memo podcast? Contact ⁠Marketecture⁠.