paul heydon lvp presentation @ silicon vikings swissnex event @ gdc mar 2015

The Need for Speed3 March 2015

© 2015 London Venture Partners LLP Confidential and Proprietary, all rights reserved

WHO?


– Advisor and Investor based in London for over 15 years

– Strong game sector experience, knowledge and relationships

– Advised on transactions in the game sector with a total value of over $1 billion advising many companies including:

– Shareholder in:

Who am I?Paul HeydonPartner,LVP


– Seed fund focused on investing in game startups in Europe

– Partners:

• David Gardner – 12th employee at

• David Lau-Kee – Founder of

• Me

– Backed by & Don Mattrick (CEO of Zynga)

– Investor in:

Who is LVP?


WHERE IS THE GAME SECTOR HEADED?


Market Size


2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

10

20

30

4050

6070

80

90

100

$70.4

18%

$75.5$81.4

$88.4$95.2

$102.9

23%27% 30%

32%34%

$12.7 $17.6$21.8 $26.3

$30.7$35.4

$Bn

SHARE

SHARE

SHARESHARE

SHARE

SHARE

MOBILEMOBILE

MOBILEMOBILE

MOBILE

MOBILE

TOTAL

TOTAL

TOTAL

TOTAL

TOTAL

TOTAL

TOTAL GAMES MARKET MOBILE GAMES MARKET

$100 bn total addressable market for Video Games by 2017 Fastest growing area is mobile; $35bn market by 2017

Source: Newzoo

Key disruptions in the game sector

»Platform – From Console/ PC to Tablets/ Smartphones

»Business Model – From Paid to Free

»Operations – From Products to Services

»Small is the new Big – From Big Publishers to Small Developers

»Speed Matters – From Game Idea to Launch


European Gems; Unicorns don’t exist


• Founded in May 2009 by Notch in Sweden with launch of

• Bootstrapped; never raised money

• 2013: $289m Rev & $125m Op Income

• Sept/14: Acquired by Microsoft for $2.5bn; just over 5 years since starting

• Notch is the first billionaire in game sector in Europe


• Founded in Aug/03 in Sweden with skill games

• 2005 – raised $43m from Apax & Index Ventures

• Pivot to casual games on Facebook H2 2011

• Launch on mobile H2 2012

• 2014: $2.3bn Rev & $950m EBITDA

• Mar/14: IPO at $7.1bn value; now $5.0bn

• Created $1bn+ value for founders


• Founded in Aug/04 by founders in Copenhagen after game they developed failed

• Bootstrapped until Series A of $5.5m with Sequoia in Oct/09; I met them in early 2008 with 10 guys in a small office

• July/11 Series B of $12m• Made 4 acquisitions to date; 3 in 2014• Now: 500 employees, 18 offices, 4m registered

users; the most popular game engine in the world and expanding into retention, social sharing, analytics and ad services


• Founded June/10 in Helsinki, Finland with team of 6 to make high quality browser games; 160+ employees now

• LVP invested in Oct/10 with Initial Capital & Jari Ovaskainen• May/11 Raised Series A of $12m with Accel Partners• June/11 Pivot to mobile• Game launches: June/12 Hay Day, Aug/12 Clash of Clans,

Mar/14 Boom Beach• Mar/13 - $130m secondary w/ Index, IVP & Atomico• Oct/13 – 51% sale to Softbank/ Gungho for $3bn; 3 years

since LVP invested• 2013 - $892m revenue, $464m EBITDA• One of the fastest growing companies ever; Accel said

faster than Facebook


SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN FOR A GAME STARTUP?


Success in the game sector is defined by:

- number of DAU’s;- revenue size; or

- exit price sizeNOT:

- how much funding you raise


MASSIVE SUCCESS IS POSSIBLE; EVEN WITH FOCUSSING ON A VERY SMALL NUMBER OF GAMES WITH SMALL NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES


FOCUS MATTERS; SAY CHEERS TO ALL THE THINGS

YOU SAY NO TO


SPEED MATTERS TO INVESTORS; IDEALLY WANT BIGGEST RETURN

IN FASTEST POSSIBLE TIME


CAPITAL EFFICIENCY MATTERS TO INVESTORS;

GAME STARTUPS DO NOT NEED TENS OF MILLIONS TO REACH

SUCCESS


MAKE GAMES WITH MASSIVE POTENTIAL; THE GAME YOU REALLY

WANT TO MAKE MAY BE VERY DIFFERENT FROM WHAT THE

MARKET WANTS


If You Get Strong Traction

• Then investors will call

• You will have luxury of:

– Raising money

– Selling some shares

– All of the Above

– Doing nothing & focussing on your success


But

• Dont focus just on your success

– Keep updating your game

• Start developing more games

• Ultimately you need a diversified portfolio

• Success breeds copies

• One game’s strong revenue will not last forever; maybe a long time but not forever


WHY INVEST IN THE GAME SECTOR?


Largest Europe Liquidity Events in Game Sector

Total Value Creation: $18 bn in Europe since 2000

Source: Capital IQ, Company Filings, Brokers & Press

Note: Including secondary deals

Exit/ IPO Deal Value (USD$ millions)


TT GamesBigpoint Playfish

BigpointSN SystemsBizarre Creations EidosMental ImagesCodemastersCriterion

RarePlayJam Funcom

AstrumDigital Bros

Gameloft Mindscape Weka Entertainment Scoreloop

Supercell

Supercell

King

Mojang

NaturalMotion

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

Jan/00 Jan/01 Jan/02 Jan/03 Jan/04 Jan/05 Jan/06 Jan/07 Jan/08 Jan/09 Jan/10 Jan/11 Jan/12 Jan/13 Jan/14 Jan/15

WHAT WE LIKE TO SEE IN COMPANIES TO INVEST IN


+ +

INTELLIGENCE INSIGHT PASSION


LOW LATENCY IDEAS


FAST ITERATION


CURIOSITY


PORTFOLIO APPROACH


WE LIKE TO UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE LIKE IT


GOOD CHEMISTRY


WHY WE DO THIS?


WHY WE DO THIS

• Frustrated with bad inertia at big companies

• Early investors at Playfish, Unity, NaturalMotion

• Funding for “games” was hard

• Love Europe

• Love Entrepreneurs (that listen)

• Love the industry


WHAT YOU SHOULD DO


“Video games foster the mindset that allows creativity to grow.”― Nolan Bushnell


Paul Heydon

London Venture Partners

Email: [email protected]

Web: www.londonvp.com

Twitter: @pheydon

38© 2015 London Venture Partners LLP Confidential and Proprietary, all rights reserved

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.londonvp.com/

Disclaimer

• This presentation was prepared by London Venture Partners exclusively for the benefit and internal use of Recipient(s) in order to provide some thoughts onfundraising in the game sector. This presentation is incomplete without reference to, and should be viewed solely in conjunction with oral briefing provided byLondon Venture Partners. The presentation is proprietary to London Venture Partners and may not be used for any other purpose without the prior written consentof London Venture Partners.

• The information in this presentation reflects prevailing conditions and our views as of this date, which are accordingly subject to change. In preparing thispresentation, we have relied upon and assumed, without independent verification, the accuracy and completeness of all the information available from publicsources or which was otherwise reviewed by us.


paul heydon lvp presentation @ silicon vikings swissnex event @ gdc mar 2015

Business

europe partners

rights reservedwhere

rights reservedwho

rights reserved2012

rights reserved advisor

bn market

game startups

game idea