BITKRAFT Ventures

?? Liminal Experiences, Inc raises a $5.8M Seed round from BITKRAFT Ventures, Riot Games, OTK Media, Goodwater Capital (Coddy Johnson), and angel investors including Marc Merrill (co-founder of Riot Games), to spark a new chapter of AI-powered adventure creation! ?? After two years in stealth, we’re very excited to finally lift the curtains together. We’ve been grateful for the opportunity to lead the team’s Seed round, and it’s been incredible to see Brendan Mulligan, David Lieberman and the amazing Liminal team execute their vision from an empty canvas. ?? When Brendan was leading corporate development at Riot Games, he saw many startup pitches, the power of cross-media IP, major partnership deals, and ultimately, the magic that happens when you bring friends or communities at large together. Yet, he couldn’t find anybody who was building what he believed had to exist—especially when new creative possibilities were on the horizon with an AI-native tech foundation. ??? Liminal is a creation game like Minecraft, but instead of castles and farms, you build complete stories to play with others, join community-created adventures, or enjoy content of your favorite IPs—whether fantasy, sci-fi, or any other setting. Everyone can be empowered to build their own RPG, and IP holders have a place to deliver curated experiences to their audiences. ?? Stories are an essential medium for us to connect with others, share experiences, and learn together—they surround us every day. If you have kids, just watch them play pretend or immerse themselves in the universe of their current favorite show or game. That’s the case for a creativity platform seeking to offer effortless, fun storytelling to the next generation of UGC players—it’s already working! ???? Liminal’s key ingredients to make it happen: 1. No-code 3D adventures 2. Seamless social creation, play and sharing 3. AI-powered world-building and storytelling assistance with game creation concierge 4. Full building, decorating, and character editing systems 5. Easy quest creation and advanced gameplay editing ?? A major inspiration for Liminal are games like Tiny Glade, the Sims, Minecraft, and even Dress to Impress. These are games where creativity is play, not work, and the hours fade away in the flow of creation. ?? Come and join the Liminal journey as we push to transform how stories are made and shared, and communities are built. Drop Brendan (or me) a message if you want to catch him at GDC! More here from VentureBeat: https://lnkd.in/ghfTJgzt Thanks Dean Takahashi for the coverage! #gaming #gamingindustry #venturecapital #seed #funding #gamedev #creativity #UGC #AI #liminal #bitkraft

?? welevel studios raises a $5.7M Seed round led by BITKRAFT Ventures aiming to?revolutionize procedural game development! ?? Big congrats to Christian Heimerl ?? GDC, who?brings a triple-threat of serial exits, technical depth, and exceptional audience understanding. ?? ?Excited to join forces with an amazing group of supporters: Goodwater Capital (Coddy Johnson, Scott Shiao), Andrew Sheppard (ex-Kabam), Chris Carvalho (Board Member Roblox), Daniel Weinand (Co-founder Shopify), Dennis Fong (5x successful founder), Eden Chen (Founder Pragma), Heiko Hubertz (Founder Bigpoint GmbH), Kun Gao (Co-founder Crunchyroll, GGWP), Mario G?tze (World cup wonder goal scorer for Germany :) ), Nate Mitchell (Co-founder Oculus VR, Mountaintop Studios), Oksana Kubushyna ?? GDC (ex-COO Entertainment Riot Games, Co-founder Seeker Entertainment), Ralf Reichert (Co-founder ESL FACEIT Group - EFG), Steven Snow (ex-EP Riot Games, Co-founder The Believer Company), among others, and support from Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (DLR). ???? ?After 5 years living in LA, it feels extra special to partner with a passionate squad from Germany. ?? ?The welevel team established?remarkable?technological foundations over 4 years with only a handful of developers, enabling creative decisions at rapid speed and marginal cost. ??? ?Their fun, playable prototype already provides what we believe is living proof for their exceptional platform.?We're excited?to see extensive gameplay systems, high visual polish, and an experience that can capture players for over 100 hours. If you love open-world sandboxes with RPG progression, building depth (hi Satisfactory and Redstone farms!), and are curious about next-gen personalized play experiences in the genre, this one is for you. ?? ?While the venture community talks a lot about the first "5-person, fast path to $100M ARR company" these days, gaming is in the early stages of AI adoption at scale. It?is?a tall order for an emerging studio to take on AAA ambitions in a large genre, but?we think?the time has never been better than now. We believe that lean teams who rethink development and break current limitations in time and scope will unlock unprecedented gameplay and distribution vectors. ?? Let me know if you’d like to meet Chris at GDC.?Happy to make an intro as he enters the global stage! ?? PS: While the curtains are still closed on details of the product, let me know if you want to sneak into a playtest. More here from VentureBeat: https://lnkd.in/gJ5rhUKH Thanks Dean Takahashi for the coverage! ?? Shoutout to Jens Hilgers, Peter Pilone for the tag team, and Dorian Gorr for the intro! #gaming #gamingindustry #venturecapital #seed #funding #gamedev #gamedevjobs #welevel #bitkraft

Is India the Next Gaming Revolution? At Founders Day 2025, we gained powerful insights into India's emerging position as a gaming powerhouse. Jens Hilgers, esports entrepreneur and founding GP of BITKRAFT Ventures, makes a bold prediction that our nation will produce 10 global gaming unicorns in the next decade. Drawing compelling parallels to China's gaming evolution, he highlighted India's key advantages: our massive domestic market, hungry entrepreneurial talent pool, and unique creative capabilities rooted in our rich cultural production heritage. As Western audiences experience creative fatigue with familiar narratives, India stands poised to introduce fresh perspectives and innovative approaches to global gaming. #FoundersDay2025

Last night, we wrapped up a highly productive networking event in collaboration with BITKRAFT Ventures, where we brought together some of the brightest minds in gaming, investment, and emerging tech. The event provided an in-depth exploration of the intersection between gaming, immersive technology, and investment in our region. We were also honored to hear from industry leaders like Nikita Buyanov and Cordel Robbin-Coker, founders of CORE3, the UAE’s first AAA game studio, and Carry1st, Africa’s leading video game publisher expanding into the Middle East. Thank you to everyone who joined us, we look forward to seeing you at the next one! ??????? ?????? ?????? ????? ???????? ?? Bitkraft Ventures? ??? ??????? ?????? ??????? ?? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ??????? ??????????? ?????????? ?? ??? ??????. ???? ???????? ???? ???? ??? ????? ????? ??? ??????? ??????????? ????????? ???????? ???????? ??? ????????? ?? ???????. ??? ????? ????????? ??? ????? ?? ?????? ??? ?????? ??????? ?????? ????-????? ????? CORE3? ??? ??????? ????? ????? ?????? ?? ????????? ???????? ??? Carry1st? ???? ???? ????? ????? ?? ??????? ????? ???? ??? ????? ???? ?????? ??? ????? ??????. ????? ??? ?? ???? ?????? ?????? ??????? ?? ???????? ??????? #AbuDhabiGaming #??????_???????_???????????

Honored to be featured in Bloomberg and SEMAFOR to remark on the incredible growth of the African gaming market as revealed in a new report by Newzoo and Carry1st! Some key takeaways (since the articles may be hidden behind a paywall..): ?? The African gaming market grew from $1.6 billion in 2023 to $1.8 billion in 2024, representing a 12.4% YoY increase (which is SIX times faster than the global average of 2.1% ?? ) ?? Total number of gamers in Africa is now 350 MILLION in 2025, up 32 million from 2024 (10% YoY increase) ?? Mobile gaming continues to dominate, accounting for $1.6 billion (90%) of the total $1.8 billion market, with a 14% YoY increase ?? Top countries by revenue: ???? Egypt led with $368 million in revenue, followed by ???? Nigeria at $300 million and ???? South Africa at $278 million (all key Carry1st countries ?? ). The key drivers of growth? - Increased smartphone accessibility across the continent (brands like Transsion are increasingly making low-cost, gaming-capable devices) - A booming young population that is digitally-native and tech-savvy (median age on the continent is 20 years old) - Improving infrastructure specifically for gamers, such as dedicated servers, local payment methods, and community platforms (not-so-subtle plug for our contributions here: COD:M and VALORANT servers in ZA + NG, Pay1st / Carry1st Shop for gamers, Carry1st Africa Cup) Gaming in Africa is booming, and we're at the heart of it -- this growth is not slowing down any time soon ?? Grateful to have shared insights in these pieces—check them out and let me know what you think below! ?? ?? Bloomberg: https://lnkd.in/dQPn6uvA ?? Semafor: https://lnkd.in/dfehAJuy #gaming #africa

Big news today! Beamable raised $13.5M in our Series A, led by BITKRAFT Ventures to support our Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) for game backends and live services! https://lnkd.in/ge6czeu7