fund:AI (managed by River Capital) has invested £500,000 into leading Virtual Reality (VR) gaming company Fallen Planet Studios.
Based in Southport, Fallen Planet is at the forefront of VR gaming and has deep relationships into the major platforms including Sony and Meta (formerly Facebook) where the Fallen Planet games have been in the top 10 all time VR downloaded titles.
The Liverpool City Region is a hotbed for the creative and gaming sector with a number of mergers and acquisitions in the region including from Sony who have a major presence in the heart of Liverpool.
The investment will be used to support the development of new titles where Artificial Intelligence is key to its evolving workflow.
The deal was supported by Daniel Hayhurst of Brabners and by Will Carlyle of Sheridans who provided legal counsel.
Fallen Planet Studios CEO Alex Moretti said:
“Founded in 2013 with a sole focus on developing for the nascent Virtual Reality industry, the exploration and adoption of new technologies is an integral part of Fallen Planet Studios’ DNA. This strategic investment from River Capital will support our commitment to innovation, accelerating the implementation of AI technologies across our game development pipeline by enhancing our proprietary toolsets, whilst enabling us to elevate our gaming experiences by deriving and responding to valuable player insights.
“We are excited about the possibilities this partnership unlocks and we look forward to delivering exceptional games and services to the global XR community.
fund:AI Investment Director David Walters said:
“We are pleased to support Fallen Planet Studios on the launch of their next gaming titles and to capitalise on the launch of new hardware from Meta and Apple. Both initiatives offer strong growth opportunity for the company.
“The gaming sector has been an early adopter of AI which has made a huge impact on graphical and functionality development. The ability for AI to support game designers and programmers is increasing exponentially, with new tools and applications assisting developers with their workflow.
“We are delighted to support the founders Alex Moretti and Mark Paul on the next part of their growth journey and look forward to the release in early 2024 of the new VR game titles.”
River Capital Head of Venture Marc d’Abbadie said:
“fund:AI’s investment in Fallen Planet Studios caps a particularly busy period at River Capital including our launch of a new North West Private Equity Fund, our support of the MBO of Barons Contract Furniture and our recent 15x exit of Cerus Endovascular. The River Capital team continues to grow with the recruitment of John Gray as our new head of debt and Amer Karim as our new business development manager. We look forward to supporting the Fallen Planet team on their growth journey.”
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