A company with Russian roots, 110 Industries, raised a total of $10 million for game development last year. The money was also invested by billionaire Philippe Gens. At the same time, the startup itself still does not have a single released title in its portfolio.
Wanted: Dead
In total, two rounds of investments were closed in 2021, according to Forbes, citing a representative of 110 Industries.
One of them — for $4 million — was attended by the president of the Lanit group, Philip Gens. A representative of the billionaire confirmed the fact of the investment, but declined to name the exact amount. The names of the other investors were also not disclosed.
All the money should go not to the startup’s capital, but directly to the creation of games. 110 Industries itself still claims that it specializes in producing. For her part, she comes up with a script and character images, after which she attracts a third-party studio for development.
One of the founders of 110 Industries Sergey Kolobashkin noted that the creation of each high-budget project costs $ 20-50 million. However, for several years of its existence, the company has not yet presented a single finished product. Kolobashkin himself explains this by the duration of the development of large games and says that the concept development stage alone takes up to a year.
According to 110 Industries, it currently has eight games in production at once. Among them is the third—person action game Wanted: Dead, which is scheduled for release in 2022. It is being created by the Japanese studio Soleil, although in one of the early presentations the Finnish Remedy was indicated as a developer.
On February 14, the Wanted: Dead trailer premiered on IGN. The game is being developed for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
In 2020, 110 Industries raised $20 million from several investors. Key to the list was Norma Investment, Roman Abramovich’s investment company. Also, part of the funds was received from GEM Capital, which had previously invested in Atomic Heart and the authors of Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.
In fact, GEM Capital is almost the only company in the list of well—known investors of 110 Industries, which is directly related to the gaming industry. Basically, the startup attracts funds from non-core players.
In the context of information about new investments, it is also worth briefly recalling the history of 110 Industries.
Kolobashkin founded the startup in 2017, and a year later Anton Poletaev, managing partner of The Untitled Ventures fund, joined him. Now they own 45% of 110 Industries. Another 20% is owned by the above-mentioned Norma Investment, and the remaining shares are distributed among minority shareholders.
In 2020 , at the disposal of App2Top.ru there were two presentations at once, which 110 Industries allegedly sent to potential investors. They stated that the company was directly involved in the creation of many major AAA hits – from Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice to Uncharted 4.
“It seems to me that this is a collection of money from the “oilmen”, but not ********* [ deception], and, as they say, a superficial examination,” is how one of the interviewed experts described the activities of 110 Industries. More details can be found from our investigation.