VC firm Gem Capital says it is looking for founders with a strong track record, first movers and high-potential indies for its next investment.
Gem is coming off a strong payout from Sensor Tower’s acquisition of AppMagic earlier this year. Co-managing director Kirill Gurskiy (pictured above right) said Gem backed AppMagic because the team spotted a gap for a dedicated small-medium business-focused analytics tool before anyone else built one.
The VC firm applied the same first-mover logic to Skich, the Cyprus-based alt store startup it backed before the EU’s Digital Markets Act forced Apple to allow alternative app stores. Skich recently signed a payments deal with Xsolla to move to a flat 15% commission for developers.
Gurskiy said Gem increasingly wants founders who’ve already shipped a successful game in a closely related genre, sometimes investing before a playable build or performance data exist.
That’s the idea behind its backing of Studio 42, the Cyprus-based mobile studio founded by former Belka Games leaders Aleksandr Bogdanov, Ivan Larionov and Pavel Sudakov. Studio 42 raised $3.6m in a Play Ventures-led seed round that Gem also joined. Gurskiy pointed to the team’s track record scaling Belka titles like Solitaire Cruise and Clockmaker as the basis for backing the studio pre-launch.
Gurskiy also said the bar for proving a game’s commercial viability has risen sharply as investors no longer stop at retention numbers, but now expect evidence that a title’s revenue can hold up once user acquisition spend is scaled, given how much UA costs have climbed.
He added that Gem wants founders with a “Plan B, and often Plan C and Plan D” if a game’s core hypothesis doesn’t pan out.
Indies like Indika maker Odd Meter are also on Gem’s shopping list, as they “operate with significantly lower budgets, yet successful projects can still generate exceptional returns,” adds Gurskiy.
“While discipline, metrics, and execution matter more than ever, the gaming industry continues to reward teams willing to pursue ambitious creative ideas.”
