London, England -- Pembridge Associate Partner Andy Tait shared his front-line experience of early stage private funding earlier today at the Funding & Investment Summit for Casual Online Games, MMOs & Virtual Worlds.
Chairing a session that focused on the perspective of developers and intellectual property owners, his fellow panellists included Twinity pioneer Jochen Hummel (Metaversum); Sebastian Funke (sMeet); Gobion Rowlands, Red Redemption; Ian Hetherington; Ian Livingstone (Eidos); Daniel James (Three Rings) and Nina Pustilnik (WeeWorld).
Across all the international case-studies these speakers shared, common themes emerged around the need to understand the drivers of Investment, clearly targeted demographics, business and revenue models and the role of advertising for valuation. The impact of media tie-ins was also explored.
Tait shared case-studies from recent Pembridge experience including the London-based g2i program, in which Pembridge is a key partner, to explain what early stage private equity funds are, how they work and how to access them. He also drew on his personal experience of co-founding
Superscape Group plc (subsequently acquired by Glu) and Mobstar Media,
and the ground breaking deals he struck through work with ITV, Endemol,
Virgin Group and HMV
The summit was held to review the massive injection of VC funding into Virtual Worlds over the last 12 months and to explore the positive outlook for entertainment and new media platforms, especially games and virtual worlds, despite the economic downturn. Discussion highlighted the key areas receiving funding: online networked games and virtual worlds, green & sustainable casual games, interactive quiz shows and personal improvement titles.
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