For Game Makers by Game makers
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HENRIC SUURONEN
Founding Partner
Henric previously co-founded Nonstop Games which was acquired by King for US$32M + earnout and was an early investor in Huuuge Games (IPO),Omniata (acquired by King), DataTiger (acquired by Apple), Astralis Group (IPO on Nasdaq), and more.
He has over 16 years of experience building mobile games and studios. He was previously Product Management Director at Digital Chocolate (Helsinki and Barcelona), Head of Studio at Wooga (Berlin), and Senior Creative Director at King.
Henric is based in Singapore and frequently travels to the main gaming hubs in Europe and the US. He is rated by founders and TechCrunch as one of the "Most Engaged" VCs.
HARRI MANNINEN
Founding Partner
Harri has over 18 years experience in gaming and previously co-founded Rocket Pack, which was acquired by Disney in 2011. He is also the co-founder of Matchmade (Shark Punch), the leading influencer marketing platform for games.
Harri’s angel investment portfolio includes several startups in the gaming and technology space, including Mighty Bear Games, Starberry Games, Matchmade, Vizor Bloom, FitXR, and Transfluent. Harri also built Nordic XR Startups pre-seed accelerator in Helsinki, with partners gumi and Nordisk Film, where he led investments into 10 early stage Nordic VR/AR startups.
Harri is based in Helsinki and is the only Helsinki-based VC on TechCrunch's "Most Engaged" list of VCs.
PHYLICIA KOH
Vice President
Phylicia has over 9 years experience in marketing and growth, working with the likes of Mighty Bear Games, Voice Labs, Homage, Ethnicraft Online, as well as for the Singapore Economic Development Board.
Phylicia is based in Singapore and works on investment evaluation, due diligence, portfolio support, and fund operations. She also leads Play's diversity and inclusion initiatives.
ANTON BACKMAN
Principal
Based in Helsinki, Anton supports the partners in deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio support.
Before Play Ventures, he was the co-founder and CEO of Wave Ventures, the Nordics’ first student-run venture capital fund. He also co-managed investor operations at Slush and worked for a major Nordic law firm.
KENRICK DRIJKONINGEN
General Partner (Play Future Fund)
From July 2021, Kenrick will be the partner of our Play Future Fund. As an early adopter of all things crypto he founded LuneX Ventures in 2018 investing in equity and tokens of blockchain & crypto companies building the decentralized web. Before that he was running growth strategies with numerous startups in Singapore including Zalora/Lazada, Nonstop Games, Travelmob and Golden Gate Ventures.
Kenrick is a strong believer in the disruptive power of public blockchains to create a more level playing field for developers, creators and individuals alike. He's also an active angel investor in a number of gaming companies.
VINCENT LIM
Analyst (Future Fund)
Vincent has been passionate about cryptocurrencies investments since 2017.
Based in Singapore, Vincent handles investment assessment, due diligence and portfolio support. His previous experience includes working as a tech lead at a start up & senior developer at Tz Apac.
JUHA LINDELL
Director of Platform
Juha is based in Berlin and heads our platform function, focusing on supporting founders hands-on on a variety of topics and connecting the dots across our networks.
Juha has over a decade of experience in building products and ventures in gaming and other B2C verticals, thanks to his time at Digital Chocolate, Wooga and BCG Digital Ventures.
SANTO DOMINGGO
Finance and Admin Manager
Santo has over 7 years of experience in auditing at EY, specialising in wealth and asset management industry.
He has worked with a spectrum of global institutions ranging from Alternative investment funds to Asset managers, and now manages all things finance and admin at Play Ventures.
JOAKIM ACHRÉN
Venture Partner
Based in Helsinki, Joakim is an entrepreneur with 15 years of experience from two venture-backed gaming startups, including Next Games which IPOed in Helsinki Nasdaq First North stock exchange in 2017, and is the company behind The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land and The Walking Dead: Our World.
Joakim also runs Elite Game Developers, a company that helps entrepreneurs kickstart their first games company.
He’s also an angel investor in Skunkworks Games, Lightheart Entertainment, Savage Game Studios, and more.
MICHAIL KATKOFF
Entrepreneur in Residence
Michail Katkoff has over a decade of experience in building free-to-play games and kick-ass game teams. Prior to starting his own gaming startup (still in stealth) he held leadership and product management positions at Supercell, Zynga, FunPlus and Rovio.
GORDON BELLAMY
Community Partner
Based in LA, Gordon is an award-winning gaming dynamo who has played key business and product leadership roles at Tencent, Electronic Arts, as a designer on Madden NFLFootball, and at MTV Networks.
In 2020, Gordon was honoured by Games for Change as their Vanguard Award winner for his contributions to the craft. In 2018, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Conference from Black in Gaming. He is currently featured in the Netflix Documentary, High Score, about the history of the game industry.
Gordon is currently a Professor of the Practice of Cinematic Arts at USC and head of the USC Bridge incubator programme.
He is also the Executive Director/CEO of the Gay Gaming Professionals, a non-profit organisation supported by Play Ventures.
