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London Venture Partners
London Venture Partners is the first venture firm globally to invest exclusively in games, backing studios behind Supercell and Unity since 2010.
London Venture Partners
London Venture Partners was established in 2010 by David Lau-Kee, a former Electronic Arts executive, alongside Are Mack Growen and Harry Hamer. The firm emerged from the recognition that game studios required specialized early-stage capital from investors who understood production cycles, live-service monetization, and platform risk — a gap that generalist venture funds consistently mispriced. LVP structured itself from inception to only back interactive entertainment, making it an outlier in European venture. The firm invests at seed and Series A stages, backing game developers and the infrastructure tools that power them. LVP's portfolio spans mobile gaming, PC, console, and emerging platforms around user-generated content and the creator economy. Confirmed investments include Supercell, the Finnish mobile studio behind Clash of Clans, and Unity Technologies, the real-time 3D development platform that went public in 2020 (per the firm's official communications). The partnership also backed PlayRaven, a Helsinki-based strategy games studio, and Gumbug, a London developer. Geographic focus runs from the UK and Nordics through to Western Europe, with co-investment relationships across the major games funds in Asia. LVP operates with a lean partnership structure across London, with team size and total committed capital undisclosed. In May 2023 the firm announced its fourth fund, LVP IV, though specific hard-cap details were not made public (per the firm's official communications). The fund maintains a concentrated portfolio approach, writing roughly 25–30 checks per vintage. Adjacent vehicles, philanthropic structures, or club affiliations beyond the core fund series are not publicly documented. The firm's structural differentiator is its pure-play mandate: LVP does not invest in enterprise SaaS, fintech, or consumer apps unless they sit underneath the games ecosystem as infrastructure. This forces a sourcing model built on deep relationships with game studio founders and an underwriting expertise that generalist firms cannot replicate. The partnership has also developed a secondary advisory role, helping mid-size European studios navigate acquisition by global publishers — a position that gives LVP visibility on consolidation flows without deploying capital.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
2010
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
City
London
Corporate office
London, United Kingdom
Principals
David Lau-Kee
General Partner
Are Mack Growen
General Partner
Harry Hamer
General Partner
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at London Venture Partners?
The firm is led by General Partners David Lau-Kee, Are Mack Growen, and Harry Hamer. Lau-Kee co-founded LVP after a career at Electronic Arts, where he served as a senior executive before transitioning to venture. Decisions are made collectively by the partnership, though this is inferred from standard venture firm operating practice as the firm's internal governance is not publicly detailed.
Is London Venture Partners structured as a single-family office or a venture firm?
LVP operates as a traditional venture capital firm raising capital from external limited partners, not as a family office. The firm closed its fourth fund in 2023 and functions with a standard GP-LP structure, investing seed and Series A capital into games and interactive entertainment startups.
Does London Venture Partners participate in fund commitments or only direct deals?
LVP makes direct equity investments into operating companies. There is no public record of the firm acting as a fund-of-funds or participating meaningfully in secondary transactions — its model is built on direct, early-stage dealmaking with game studios and platform companies.
What investment stages does London Venture Partners typically target?
LVP primarily targets seed-stage and Series A rounds. The firm positions itself as a first-check investor, entering at the earliest institutional rounds when game studios are pre-revenue or early in development. Occasional follow-on participation occurs into later stages through pro-rata rights or reserve allocations.
Which sectors does London Venture Partners explicitly avoid?
LVP explicitly avoids any sector outside interactive entertainment. The firm does not invest in enterprise software, fintech, healthtech, or general consumer apps unless the company serves the games industry as enabling infrastructure. This is a hard mandate constraint, not a preference.
Where does London Venture Partners source its deal flow?
LVP's deal flow is reputation-driven and built on long-standing relationships with game studio founders across the UK and Nordics, the two densest clusters of independent game development talent in Europe. The firm's partners also draw on EA and broader games-industry networks cultivated before the fund's founding, giving them access to teams before they formally enter the market.
Does London Venture Partners maintain any philanthropic structures or other investment vehicles?
No philanthropic foundations, operating companies, or adjacent investment vehicles beyond the core fund series are publicly disclosed. LVP appears to operate a single strategy through successive venture funds, with no reported sidecar vehicles or LP co-investment pools.
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