Mobile games marketing analyst Eric Seufert has launched a $10 million investment fund supporting mobile advertising and gaming startups with the backing of 38 investors including Supercell and Gamejam’s Christian Calderon.
As reported by Business Insider (paywall), Seufert originally founded an informal syndicate around his Mobile Dev Memo Slack group, named Heracles Capital. However, as the group grew to 400 members with 10 deals under their belt, it became an “administrative nightmare” and the group was shut down.
However, Seufert continued to seek investment, and closed the latest fund in March 2022 with 38 limited partners.
Seufert told Business Insider: “The operating mantra of the fund is investing in the future of mobile growth. My theory is that mobile is the dominating computing platform of my lifetime, and I don’t think that changes.”
13 investments to date
Heracles’ 38 partners include Supercell, Gamejam CEO Christian Calderon, Huuuge Games CEO Anton Gauffin, media investment bank Aream, and Forte chief business officer Chris Akhavan, and former Google product director of advertiser products Ari Paparo.
Paparo, who reportedly agreed to invest “within 30 seconds” of receiving the pitch, commented: “Eric knows more about mobile marketing than I do about adtech. There’s still enormous innovation taking place in the mobile ecosystem, but it often is walled off from the more traditional adtech circles in which I live. So I welcomes the opportunity to get access to that deal flow.”
The Heracles Capital fund has made 13 investments including in blockchain games studio Laguna Games.
In a subsequent Twitter thread, Seufert stated: “The consumer mobile landscape is in the grips of foundational change, driven by privacy policies like ATT and Google’s deprecation of 3p cookies / the GAID, as well as platform regulation like the DMA. As the tectonic plates shift, opportunities surface”
Some personal news! (1/X) https://t.co/z4BEBssFUy
— Eric Seufert (@eric_seufert) May 16, 2022
Seufert was a speaker at the Google x Deconstructor of Fun Instanbul Gaming Event, discussing the implications of the Digital Markets Act and how Apple has profited from ATT changes.
