A new investment and mentoring group called Project Europe has attracted the support of several well-known mobile game leaders.
The group includes Supercell boss Ilkka Paananen, Spyke Games’ Rina Onur Sirinoglu, Tripledot’s Akin Babayigit, Ex-King leaders Riccardo Zacconi, Sebastian Knutson and Stephane Kurgan, Unity’s David Helgason and more.
Posting on LinkedIn, cofounder of social gaming platform Slay Fabian Kamberi explained: “We have brought together 125 of Europe’s best founders, including Tobias Lütke [Shopify] and Ilkka Paananen [Supercell], to back and support the next wave of generational entrepreneurs coming from Europe.”
Project Europe is fronted by investment firms 20VC, Point Nine and Adjacent, and promises to fund a cohort of 10-20 young European founders per year, with an initial investment of €200k for 6.66% equity in the business (if Project Europe leads the round). Founders backed by the group will receive mentoring from the likes of Spyke Games’ Sirinoglu and Slay’s Kamberi, plus a wealth of other tech founders.
A quick look through the group’s list of investors reveals that a host of other game leaders including Popcore’s Johannes Heinze and ESL FaceIt duo Michele Attisani and Niccolo Maisto are also involved.
The project’s manifesto reads:
– Project Europe aims to drive European innovation. It does not follow any existing political movements and will remain independent of political parties and ideologies.
– A core pillar of Project Europe is to encourage the next generation to take greater risks and make entrepreneurship a worthwhile endeavour in Europe.
– Project Europe Founders can move their businesses outside of Europe, or build a remote organisation across continents; our aim is to nurture the creation of tech companies with European roots.
– The vision for Project Europe is that it becomes an independent organisation promoting entrepreneurship at the grassroots level with more founders and partners contributing for future cohorts.
Applicants must be under 25, and have started their company in Europe.
