One year after launching a16z Games Fund One – here’s the pitch deck
Hi readers,
I wanted to share a fundraising deck for a16z’s GAMES FUND ONE that we put together a little over a year ago. Of course a lot of fundraising decks have been published for our favorite companies — in fact, I have a folder full of the v1 pitch decks for Dropbox, Coinbase, Uber, etc — but rarely do you see decks for venture capital funds. I wanted to share this deck with some voiceover so you have a sense for what’s involved. Obviously there are lots of redacted slides, but you’ll at least get a flavor.
Thanks, Andrew. (Venice, CA)
A16Z GAMES FUND ONE PITCH DECK
We’ve hit the 1 year mark!!!!
A year ago, we raised GAMES FUND ONE, our first $660M fund focused on games. 25 investments and 10 new hires later, we’ve learned so much.
To celebrate, I’m going to share some slides we used to raise the fund. Yes, even VCs have to pitch :)
We structured our pitch deck into a discussion and overview about the games industry – many folks outside the industry needed some context to catch up. And then our investment areas, and then how we approached the team. (I’ve redacted notes about returns/companies/etc, of course)
For the overview – Games are driving the GenAI Revolution and this games are having their “Marvel Moment” showcasing their cultural power as some of the top shows – The Last of Us, Movies – Super Mario Movie, and Games are expanding entertainment IP like Hogwarts Legacy.
And by the way, the industry has changed substantially from when people were buying cartridges one at a time to decade-plus long-running games where friends come together as a next gen social network.
Games are often the killer app for new technologies. 3D, GPUs, and virtual items all came from games, though we might re-label them as metaverse, or NFTs. Before freemium, there was shareware. Games helped bring computing to the home, with Atari and Nintendo.
Here’s the “why now” slide – and today we’d update this slide with AI AI AI AI AI AI :) – but there are some amazing tailwinds that the industy has seen over the past decade
Last year we were very focused on studios, web3, and infrastructure. This year we’ve continued to maintain that focus, but have really started to lean into AI. In Q1 alone, we met over 100 AI x Games companies. And in 2023, 80% of the Games Fund’s investments have had a major AI component – either reinventing core gameplay or creating tools
We need to balance our approach to include all key areas of games, but also adapt to new trends.
As we invest across the ecosystem – both game studios but also infra, next gen consumer, and other areas – we need to also help the companies succeed. We do that by building a team that’s “games native”
A major part of a16z’s differentiation has been our Operating Team that helps companies. In fact the vast majority a16z’s staff focuses on that, and it’s a small minority that focuses on investing Gaming startups want help here: – hiring – creators – launching – publishers
Last year, we hired operators like Doug McCracken from Supercell to lead Marketing, Lester Chen from Youtube to lead Creators, and Jordan Mazer from Riot to lead Talent. Everyone has a startup mindset we all act like owners and work without clear directives. (Many more folks to come!)
Given the economic downturn, we’ve spent innumerable hours working with our portfolio to maximize their probability of long term success. This is when the operating team is so powerful. But the games market is resilient!
As we round out the year, we’re continuing to build and innovate. Builders are needed to help builders. We’ve been building the team in year one and hired from Blizzard, Supercell, Youtube, Riot, Twitch, and Unity. Join us!
Thanks to everyone who’s supported us in Year One!
Kudos to the new team, our founders/co-investors, and our friends across the ecosystem
And of course, my close colleagues Jon Lai, Marc, Ben, and the entire team who have been building this initiative from the start!
PS. Finally, our lawyers made me add this at the end :)
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