Israel-based social game developer Playtika launched a corporate venturing unit called Playtika Growth Investments yesterday and will invest up to $400m through the vehicle.
The fund will target domestic digital entertainment and consumer internet companies, particularly those with annual revenues of $10m or more with proven business models that are profitable or close to the break-even point.
Founded in 2010, Playtika develops immersive social games and claims to have been the first company to bring free-to-play casino-type games to social networks. In addition to providing capital, it also plans to supply its expertise to portfolio companies.
Eric Rapps, Playtika Growth’s managing director, said: “Playtika’s operational teams oversee hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing budgets, the processing and analysis of more than six terabytes of data daily, and more than a billion dollars of revenue.
“They have been instrumental in Playtika’s success from a 10-person startup to a global market leader with 1,700 employees across 14 offices in 10 countries. For the first time, their expertise will be made available to other companies and will help drive exceptional company performance and investment returns.”
Raz Friedman is also on the team as its head of optimisation services, while the fund has an investment committee that includes Playtika co-founder and CEO Robert Antokol. Playtika Growth is looking to recruit an investment analyst and business development associate.
Playtika, which was acquired by a private equity consortium led by online game developer Giant Network Group for $4.4bn in 2016, has not been active in corporate venturing, but claims to have put more than $300m into the acquisitions of 10 companies since it was founded.