Transcend.

Transcend Portfolio Spotlight: Midsummer Studios ???Founded by award-winning industry veterans on a mission to redefine the Life Sim category ?????With decades of experience crafting legendary franchises like Civilization and XCOM, Jake Solomon, Will Miller, and Nelsie Birch are unlocking the power of gameplay as a crucible for player stories leveraging next-gen UGC and AI ? Oversubscribed $6M Seed round led by Transcend.

?? Exciting news from Ruckus Games! Transcend is thrilled to announce that our portfolio company, Ruckus Games, has successfully raised a $19M Series A round, led by KRAFTON, with strong support from BITKRAFT Ventures, Hypergryph, and Transcend. This is a remarkable achievement in today’s funding climate and a testament to the visionary team at Ruckus Games, who are redefining the multiplayer gaming experience with their debut title. ?? Just over a year ago, Transcend led a $5.5M Seed round to invest in Ruckus Games' ambitious vision. Today, we are incredibly proud to continue our partnership with the exceptional Ruckus team—Paul Sage, Scott Kester, Carl Shedd, Kevin Penrod, Keith Schuler, Christofer Strasz, Jesse McIntyre, Alexandra Takei, Devann McCarthy to name just a few—as they build a game that is set to disrupt the multiplayer landscape with its unique blend of fast-paced action, deep RPG elements, and a whole lot of "stupid weapons" (in the best way possible). ?? The newly expanded squad includes: - Hyeri Maria Park, Vice President, Head of Corporate Development and Mike Hong ?? ?? G-Star, Director of Corporate Development at KRAFTON Inc. - Jasper Brand, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures - Clare Yang, Head of Investments at HYPERGRYPH - Ed Fries, General Partner at 1Up Ventures - Andrew Sheppard, General Partner and Lirui Ding?? G-STAR Ding, Principal at Transcend. The momentum behind Ruckus Games is undeniable, and we couldn't be more excited to see how they’ll craft their way to the top of the looter shooter genre. For more color on that, please follow along in the comments. ??VentureBeat: https://lnkd.in/dvhDM3qK ??GamesIndustry.Biz: https://lnkd.in/dxERRMWK ??PC Gamer: https://lnkd.in/dKAFtZ9J ??Mobidictum: https://lnkd.in/d36NKJAB ??Massively OP: https://lnkd.in/dXNEKSBH ??Gematsu: https://lnkd.in/dnbQuQzX ??PC Games N: https://lnkd.in/dYuKwSgk ??PSX Brazil: https://lnkd.in/dW9Mn5PJ ??La Pause Geek: https://lnkd.in/dxj22Db2 ??Gamereactor: https://lnkd.in/deFYN7TK ??Video Games Chronicle: https://lnkd.in/dBwuUa4F ? WCCF Tech: https://lnkd.in/dV7z5bd6

Transcend?Portfolio Spotlight:?Kings of Games ??Founded by Chess Grand Masters,?Dusko Pavasovic?and?Luka Leni??with the goal of making chess accessible to all ??Combined 10B+ career mobile game downloads ??Ranked among the top chess apps globally with over 10M downloads, consistently featured in app store recommendations ???Transcend. led the Seed round in 2020

Transcend Managing Director Shanti Bergel will take the stage at DevGAMM Lisbon 2024 on Nov 14 to discuss investing in gaming and entertainment. https://lnkd.in/dzzX52Hu #gaming #venturecapital #innovation?

Transcend.?Portfolio Spotlight: Methodical Games, Inc. ?? AAA multiplayer action adventure game studio emphasising close-quarter combat, founded by industry veterans Francesco Gigliotti, Dave R., and Adam Bellefeuil ?? Combined $70B+ lifetime franchise revenues having collectively worked on multiple highest grossing titles in gaming history ? Key founding team members that created iconic blockbuster hits Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Apex Legends ? Transcend.?invested in the $15M Seed led by Lightspeed with participation from BITKRAFT Ventures, 1Up Ventures, and Jason West (Co-Founder Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment)

This year, we've been actively participating in key gaming events, sharing how AI is transforming game development. Through collaborations with various companies—including key partners like Google—we’ve demonstrated how AI-driven innovation is shaping the future of game creation. At Cosmic Lounge, we use our proprietary AI-powered Puzzle Engine for game development and operations. One of the pioneering use cases is AI-assisted game level generation, testing, and analytics, where we leverage integrated solutions like Google Vertex AI models to achieve up to 20x efficiency. Want to see our AI-driven tools in action? We will be at Google’s booth at Slush on November 20th at 12 PM, showcasing how our team utilizes the Puzzle Engine to push the boundaries of game design. For a snapshot of our approach, check out this video featuring our CEO, Tomi Huttula, as he explains how we harness AI to power the next generation of game development. #GoogleCloud #Slush2024 #MobileGames #AItechnology #GameTech #PuzzleEngine #VertexAI

Congratulations to Transcend portfolio companies Cosmic Lounge and Eggscape Entertainment Inc for being honored as 2025 Game Changers! Cosmic Lounge is pioneering AI-first game development and distribution. Eggscape is leading the way in mixed reality innovation. Both are pushing the boundaries of interactive entertainment in unique and impactful ways. Thank you to GamesBeat, Lightspeed, and the judges for championing this initiative.

Thanks to InvestGame for highlighting our work at Transcend. We continue to partner with the most ambitious founders in digital entertainment to path through market cycles and scale high-impact companies to breakout outcomes.

Transcend. Portfolio Spotlight: thatgamecompany ? thatgamecompany is a game studio dedicated to creating timeless interactive entertainment that inspires human connection worldwide. ?? The studio has won countless industry awards, including an award from the Peabody Awards and another from the Guinness World Records. Its second game, Flower, is part of the permanent collection at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. ??? Sky, their latest title, has been downloaded over 260M times across multiple platforms and is the basis of a new animated series coming to television in 2025. ? Founded by Jenova Chen with investment from Transcend., Sequoia Capital, Benchmark , TPG, Kleiner Perkins, and others.

?? Congratulations, LIVE AWARE LABS! I’m proud to share that Transcend. has led a $4.8M Seed round in Live Aware Labs, with strong backing from Lifelike Capital, A16Z GAMES and Firestreak Ventures. Live Aware Labs is transforming game development through their AI-powered platform, enabling studios to capture real-time player insights and make data-driven decisions to improve both player engagement and development efficiency. In just two years, Live Aware Labs has become a trusted partner for leading studios like KRAFTON Inc., Bonfire Studios, and Roboto Games, bridging the gap between what players want and what developers create. We’re excited to support them as they continue to reshape the industry. Our incredible co-investors include: ? Lifelike Capital: Randy Lee, Kevin Lin, Jason Lin ? A16Z GAMES: Andrew Chen, Jonathan Lai, Troy Kirwin ? Firestreak Ventures: Walter Kortschak, Amir Rustamzadeh ? Patrick Wyatt – Founder of One More Game, Co-founder of ArenaNet, former Blizzard VP, worked on StarCraft and Warcraft. ? Luis Villegas – CTO at Bungie. ? Michael Evans – Director of Engineering at Apple, AI infrastructure expert. ? Chacko Sonny – Former Executive Producer of Overwatch, now leading a new studio at Netflix. ? Eden Chen – CEO of Pragma, building multiplayer infrastructure. ? Seth Sivak – Investor, Former VP of Development for World of Warcraft at Blizzard. ? Brendan Mulligan – CEO of Liminal Experiences, creating narrative action role-playing games. ? Curt Bererton – CEO of Roboto Games, former EA developer. ? Brian Vesce – CEO of RefAssured. ? Todd Hooper – Investor,?Former CEO of Vreal, VP at Unity. With such a strong roster of investors and advisors, Live Aware Labs?is positioned to lead the transformation of game development, improving player experiences and developer efficiency. Stay tuned for more updates, and visit liveaware.io to learn more about how we’re reshaping the future of gaming. Congrats Sean Vesce and David Berger! ?? Select coverage: ??GamesIndustry.Biz https://lnkd.in/g5intft9 ??VentureBeat https://lnkd.in/ge4Zsnvg ??PocketGamer.biz https://lnkd.in/eUsCSutS ??GeekWire https://lnkd.in/gGCiFMv4 Transcend. blog https://lnkd.in/gbwxwFRU