London-based credit asset manager Fasanara has acquired a majority stake in mobile games and apps financing specialist Pollen VC for an undisclosed fee.
Pollen VC provides revolving credit facilities for mobile game and non-gaming app developers based on their future revenue. By joining up with Fasanara, which manages over $4 billion in total assets, Pollen VC can now provide more capital to games companies.
Speaking to PocketGamer.biz at Pocket Gamer Connects London, Pollen VC founder and CEO Martin Macmillan said the company could now offer between $250,000 to $10 million per month in non-dilutive working capital to publishers to help them scale. Previously this was capped at around $5 million.
“The most efficient way to scale”
Pollen VC’s services operate by utilising a daily API feed from the billing systems of the App Store and Google Play, as well as mobile ad networks such as Meta, Unity and AppLovin.
The company said its services allows for faster access to capital, rather than waiting for invoices to be generated at the end of each month and the returns invested later.
Pollen VC services games companies around the world, with a focus on North America and EMEA. It has also set its sights on emerging markets support across Eatern Europe and India.
“Founders and CFOs have woken up to capital efficiency, whereas we saw over years and years it was very easy for them to raise venture money,” said Macmillan.
“So if you needed to raise more money, there was a plentiful tap of venture capital. And yes, they would dilute themselves, but they didn’t really care because they were knocking crazy valuations.
“That has obviously totally stopped and now founders and finance leads are way more focused on different sources of capital. A lot of VC capital obviously dried up. But when they have good unity economics and a good understanding of their ad metrics, etc, then using debt is by far the most efficient way to scale, versus, even if you could raise venture money, it’s not a very practical or sensible way to do it.”
