Canada-headquartered toy children’s entertainment producer Spin Master launched a strategic investment vehicle called Spin Master Ventures yesterday with $100m of capital.
Spin Master manufactures toys and games in addition to developing digital games and animated series, the most famous of which – Paw Patrol – was recently adapted into a motion picture. It also owns the rights to Meccano and Rubik’s Cube.
The unit will make early and growth-stage investments in developers of toy, game and entertainment products with a market fit. It will initially focus on North America and Europe but will be open to deals globally.
The first two deals for Spin Master Ventures involve it investing an undisclosed sum in Sweden-headquartered mobile game developer Nørdlight and leading a C$3m ($2.4m) seed round for Canada-based online tutoring service Hoot Reading.
Ronnen Harary, co-founder and chairman of Spin Master, said: “The pace of innovation within the toys, entertainment and digital games industries is accelerating rapidly and by investing with a long-term view in leading ventures with promising ideas, we can increase our access to potentially game-changing thinking and concepts.
“Spin Master Ventures will establish us as the partner of choice for entrepreneurs looking for capital to start and grow a business in the kids’ space and will complement our acquisition strategy as well as bolster our product development pipeline.”
