Gamegroove Capital

Investment decisions sit with the founding and partner group, which includes Vlad Korolev and Alexander Zoll — the co-founders of both Gamegroove Capital and Gunzilla Games — alongside managing partner Alina Nilsson. Partner Marvin Liao, who joined after a tenure as a partner at 500 Startups, adds institutional venture experience to the committee. Operational backgrounds matter: Zoll is the former CEO of Crytek Kiev, and Korolev leads Gunzilla Games. No formal public investment committee structure has been disclosed.

Sourcing integrates two structural channels: the development pipeline of sister studio Gunzilla Games and the EMERGE Conference network founded by managing partner Alina Nilsson. The EMERGE platform has operated across Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East since 2018, producing a curated top-of-funnel of early-stage gaming and technology startups that the firm can evaluate directly. This conference-as-origination model means Gamegroove Capital does not depend solely on broker-led or GP-syndicated introductions.

It operates as a hybrid. Gamegroove Capital is the formal venture-investment unit of the GamesUp42 Group, a holding company that also owns game-development assets. The structure mirrors a corporate venture arm — deploying capital from a parent-entity balance sheet rather than a traditional limited-partner fund — but with access to operating-company dealflow in a way independent VCs typically cannot replicate.

The firm targets early-stage mandates, covering seed and start-up phases, with capacity to follow into growth rounds. It does not publicly specify a dedicated fund size per stage but maintains a venture-generalist posture within interactive entertainment, media, and enabling technology, consistent with the portfolio-company profiles it has disclosed.

Gamegroove Capital and Gunzilla Games share two co-founders — Vlad Korolev and Alexander Zoll — and both sit inside the GamesUp42 Group holding company. Korolev serves as Gunzilla's CEO, while Zoll is its chief strategy officer. The GUN token, developed for Gunzilla's gaming ecosystem, represents a direct operational and economic link between the studio and the investment arm, which has supported token-related infrastructure.

Yes. A public operational connection exists through the GUN token, an on-chain asset integrated into Gunzilla Games' platform, which implies Gamegroove Capital has exposure to token-linked instruments. Additionally, the firm has held a disclosed position in Neptune Mutual, a parametric insurance protocol built on decentralized finance infrastructure, confirming investment activity in token-based and DeFi-adjacent vehicles beyond its core gaming mandate.

The firm does not disclose a single wealth-origin event or limited-partner base. Its structure as a subsidiary of GamesUp42 Group — a holding company founded by Ukrainian gaming operators — suggests capital is sourced from group-level balance-sheet resources and potentially from retained earnings of related operating businesses, but no public fundraising or LP-disclosure documents have been filed.