Investing in Video Games

Date: 25.05.2011 09:00 - 12:45

Location: NESTA, 1 Plough Place, London, EC4A 1DE

How do you raise money for video games? What are the key factors that an investor looks for? How does the developer fare at each stage? This event provided a perspective from an angel, a venture capitalist and a developer about creating win-win relationships.

Watch the event videos here

Speakers included Ed Vaizey, Minister for Communications, Culture and Creative Industries, Ian Livingstone, Eidos, Ben Holmes, Index Ventures and Tony Pearce, TeePee Games. The event was chaired by Matt Mead, Managing Director of NESTA Investments.

This event was prioritised for UK video games developers. Following the presentations our investor partners provided 1-2-1 speed meeting sessions lasting 15 minutes.

Event agenda and more information about the 1-2-1 sessions

Speaker Biographies

Ed Vaizey MP, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries

Ed Vaizey is a huge fan of the video games sector, and in 2010 appointed Ian Livingstone as his Games Champion. He asked Ian Livingstone and Alex Hope from Double Negative to lead an Independent Skills Review for the Video Games and Visual Effects sector. Their report NextGen was published by NESTA in February and carries 20 recommendations for the games and VFX industries.

Ed was elected as the Member of Parliament for Wantage and Didcot in May 2005.Born in 1968, he attended Merton College, Oxford. After university he spent two years working as a political researcher, before training and practising as a barrister. From 1996-2004 he was director of a public relations company. In 2004 he became a political speech writer. He was Shadow Culture and Creative Industries Minister from 2006-2010

Ian Livingstone OBE

Ian Livingstone is Life President of Eidos and one of the UK's founding fathers of interactive entertainment.

In 1975 he co-founded Games Workshop and launched Dungeons & Dragons in Europe. In 1977 he published White Dwarf, the UK's first interactive games magazine and was its editor for five years. In 1982 he co-wrote The Warlock of Firetop Mountain with Steve Jackson, the first Fighting Fantasy interactive gamebook. The series sold in excess of 16 million copies in 25 languages. He wrote many of the international best-sellers including Deathtrap Dungeon.

In 1984 he invested in Domark, one of the first UK computer games publishers, designing the company's first game Eureka. He joined the board in 1992 and helped merge the company with Eidos Technologies. Following a full listing on the London Stock Exchange in 1995, he served as Executive Chairman of Eidos plc until 2002, and subsequently as Creative Director. At Eidos he helped to secure many of the company's major franchises including Tomb Raider and Hitman.

He is a Non-Executive Director of SocialGO plc, Non-Executive Director of UKIE, Chair of Skillset's Computer Games Skills Council, Vice Chair of the BAFTA Games Committee and an advisor to the British Council.

He was awarded an OBE, a BAFTA Special Award, a British Inspiration Award and an Honorary Doctorate of Technology by the University of Abertay, Dundee for his contribution to the UK computer and video games industry. Ian is an investor in many video games start-ups, including lead investor in Playdemic and Appatyze amongst others.

Ben Holmes

Ben is a Partner at Index Ventures, having joined the London office in 2002.  Ben focuses on the software and internet sectors and has been actively involved with many of the firm's consumer and media investments.  He currently sits on the boards of Gray Area Labs, Just-Eat, Mind Candy, Netlog, Notonthehighstreet, Rebtel, Shapeways and Stardoll. He was previously a Director of Panther Express and Playfish (Electronic Arts).

Prior to joining Index Ventures, he worked at the NewMedia Spark investment fund, before becoming Vice President at EO plc, a Spark portfolio company in the consumer financial services sector. Previously he spent four years at OC&C Strategy Consultants, advising firms in the retail and IT sectors. He has a Masters degree in Engineering, Economics and Management from Oxford University.

Tony Pearce

Coming from a 20 year background in senior management in the entertainment and gaming industry Tony has an excellent track record as a successful entrepreneur and CEO. Tony recently founded a new games company called TeePee Games, a consumer portal that allows players to find and play games across social networks, smart phones and the web.

Previously Tony was the CEO and Co-Founder of Player X and spearheaded the company from a four person start-up in 2004 and developed it into Europe's largest mobile games distributor. The company was named by Library House as the fourth fastest growing VC backed company in the UK before it was acquired by Spanish mobile content company ZED in April 2009.

Tony is also the co-founder of an executive networking event called the Centurions which is aimed at the digital entertainment industry and takes place every two months in London.