The fund has a total capital of 5 billion rubles.
“Smuta: The Beginning”
The new fund is named Indie GO Fund II. It plans to operate under an investment partnership model—meaning that investment in teams will come from multiple investors.
The names of all investors collaborating with Indie GO Fund II are not disclosed. It is known that 20% of the capital, or 1 billion rubles, was provided by "one of the leaders in domestic financial infrastructure." Additionally, Hobby World has joined as a partner, promising to give gaming companies access to its publishing infrastructure, expertise, and opportunities to work with global franchises.
Russian studios and publishers at various stages of development, from startups to well-established teams, will be able to receive funding from the fund. It is expected that financing will be provided to 20-25 companies in total.
Indie GO Fund II is mainly interested in titles for PC and consoles, as well as AI game development technologies (AI GameTech). It is important that the authors aim for their projects to attract not only the Russian market but also a global audience.
Indie GO claims that through the fund, it wants to help companies increase their market value and potentially, for example, sell advantageously or go public on the Moscow Exchange—which recently announced plans to engage developers and publishers of games in IPOs. In return for support, the fund will take either a stake in the companies or a share of the revenue.
If everything goes according to plan, the first deals will be concluded before the end of the year.
Rumors that Indie GO and Hobby World were planning to launch a gaming fund surfaced early in the summer. It was already clear back then that the fund would invest in game developers for consoles and PCs, but the total amount of funds was not disclosed.