Tripledot Is Latest Gaming Upstart To Get A Winning Hand

Lately, game developers have been winning hand over fist when it comes to generating enormous valuations. And while most of the attention has focused on massive acquisitions in the public markets, it should be noted that startup investment is humming along too.

The latest large financing round, reported Monday, is a $116 million Series B for Tripledot Studios, a London-based casual mobile games developer with a popular solitaire app and several puzzle games.

The financing, led by 20VC, reportedly sets a valuation of $1.4 billion for the 5-year-old company and brings total funding to date to more than $200 million.

The fundraise comes as game industry startup funding is on fire. So far this year, companies in the gaming space have raised over $1.46 billion in venture and growth funding globally, per Crunchbase data. 

Annual venture funding to companies in the gaming space, meanwhile, hit an all time high in 2021, according to Crunchbase data, with nearly $12 billion in total investment. That’s almost double investment for all of 2020, which came out to around $6.5 billion.

Consolidation in the gaming space is off the charts as well. Things hit a crescendo in January with Microsoft announcing its planned $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard—which would be its biggest bet on gaming yet and the company’s largest purchase ever.

Just a week after Microsoft’s announcement, Take-Two Interactive said it would acquire mobile gaming company Zynga, the creator of games like Farmville, for $12.7 billion. 

It should also be noted that consolidation in the gaming industry boomed in 2021 as well. According to Crunchbase data, last year was the busiest year for purchases of gaming companies globally in at least a decade, with about 180 companies related to online games and video games acquired.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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