Lightspeed Co-Leads $31.3M Series A in Gardens - Backed by an ‘S-Tier’ Syndicate
Lightspeed Co-Leads $31.3M Series A in Gardens — Backed by an ‘S-Tier’ Syndicate
Veterans from Lightspeed, Krafton, Nintendo, Blizzard, Oculus, Valorant, Microsoft, Sony, Tencent, TikTok, World of Warcraft, and others rally to support a unique blend of indie innovation and AAA ambition. Moritz Baier-Lentz · Follow Published in Lightspeed Venture Partners · · 7 hours ago 5 min read7 hours ago -- Listen Share
By Moritz Baier-Lentz, Alex Taussig, Paul Murphy, and Shan Shan
Gardens Interactive: Growing a game inspired by the team’s favorite memories of playing online RPGs, MMOs, and fantasy action-adventure games over the years — particularly memories shared with strangers.
Fundraising: Show, Don’t Tell
Gardens’ standout financing in the current market environment seems to defy gravity. But sometimes, the quality, creativity, and velocity of a team’s work simply speak for itself.
To kick off the fundraising round, Gardens presented a playable prototype behind closed doors at GDC 2023, receiving not only exceptional reviews from investors — but term sheets and even acquisition offers within days. And when a studio builds a game prototype that everyone wants, they can pick whichever investors they want.
GDC Prototype: Lightspeed partner Shan Shan during the Gardens playtest in March 2023.
“It’s inspiring and validating to see so much excitement around our vision for this game and studio, especially from these incredibly accomplished investors and partners. Folks with deep ties to Blizzard, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, PUBG, Riot Games, Tencent, Valorant, World of Warcraft, and more are all coming together around Gardens; we couldn’t be more excited for the party we’ve assembled, and the next chapter of our adventure together.” — Gardens co-founder and technical director Lexie Dostal
Syndication: Bringing Together the Best of Gaming
Being heavily oversubscribed across VCs and strategic investors, the Gardens team had the luxury of composing a syndicate without compromises — including connections to all major gaming platforms: Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony. It seems like, in some way, this game is already fulfilling its mission of “bringing strangers together.”
We’re proud to co-lead Gardens’ $31.3M Series A alongside Krafton, with key support from Dreamhaven (co-founded by Mike Morhaime, founder and long-time CEO of Blizzard Entertainment), Transcend, Stephen “Slim” Lim (co-founder of Valorant), Jeff Strain (lead programmer of World of Warcaft), Nate Mitchell (co-founder of Oculus), and V Pappas (former COO of TikTok), among others.
With the funding, the company also added former Microsoft Chairman John W. Thompson, former Sony Computer Entertainment America President and CEO Jack Tretton, former Tencent President and Take-Two CEO Ben Feder, and Yamauchi №10 (Nintendo Family) to its advisory team.
Source: Medium
