Maven Capital Partners, joint manager of the Capital for Enterprise Fund, has made a GBP2m investment in Monumental Games, a provider of massively multiplayer online games.
The GBP75 million Capital for Enterprise Fund is a government initiative launched earlier this year to help small and medium size enterprises in the UK gain access to the financial support required to bridge the funding gap caused by the credit crisis.
The investment in Monumental is one of the first investments to be made by the fund and will support Monumental’s growth and development plans to become a leading worldwide provider of MMO games.
Monumental is focussed on developing lifestyle/sporting games versus the recent trend in fantasy games. Through its Monumental Technology Suite, the company is able to bring 3D virtual world games to market much faster and more creatively than other game developers.
“This investment is a major milestone in the evolution of Monumental Games, and a vindication of our decision to focus on this market space,” says Monumental’s chief executive Rik Alexander. “We will use this capital to develop our technology to better serve our teams, and to develop our teams to better serve our publishing partners. It gives us the opportunity to consolidate our growth to date and to pursue some exciting opportunities moving forward. It’s been a real pleasure working through the investment process with Maven – they understand what we’re about and have been helpful throughout.”
Andrew Ferguson, partner at Maven, says: “Monumental is an innovative MMO games developer and we have been very impressed with their growth to date, in particular that they have grown this business from start up to revenues in excess of GBP6.0m with no third party equity or debt funding. This investment by the CfE Fund will provide Monumental with the necessary growth capital to help the team achieve their strategic vision, and demonstrates the value of the fund in supporting ambitious UK businesses like Monumental. We look forward to working with Rik and his team, to help them achieve their ambitions for the company”.
Jon Lovitt of lawyers Rosenblatts, who represented Monumental, adds: “This is a very exciting opportunity for Monumental to take their business to another level with the support of an experience investor such as Maven. It was a pleasure working with the management team through out the transaction.”
