Gem Capital invests $5m in Weappy, VEA Games and Game Garden

GEM Capital has announced that it has invested a combined $5 million into three game development studios, all based in Cyprus.

Paphos-based GEM Capital said the funds were allocated from the latest $50 million game venture capital fund that it raised last year.

As reported by VentureBeat, the studios include Weappy, which will use the money to develop and self-publish a game called Hollywood Animal, which is due to hit Steam Early Access this year. The second studio is VEA Games, which is working on an unannounced PC and console platformer. The third studios is Game Garden, which is working on the soft launch of a title called Florescence.

“With these three investments, GEM further establishes itself as a leading Cyprus-based gaming investment fund,” said GEM Capital Managing Director Roman Gurskiy, in a statement. “Following the successful announcement of Weappy’s Hollywood Animal and the strong performance of Games Garden’s Florescence, we eagerly anticipate what VEA Games will present later this year.”

Weappy is a game studio started in Cyprus in 2015 by founder Vitali Simanau, a former game journalist. He still serves as managing director. The company's games portfolio includes the 'This Is the Police' series.

Dmitry Smirnov, founder of VEA Games, started the company in 2017. He had experience as a provider of tools and plugins for game development on the Unreal Marketplace. VEA Games is known as one of the largest producers of assets and plugins for the Unreal Engine.

Founded by Yury Pomortsev, (Natalia Mishulina and Alexander Mishulin joined later) in 2009, Game Gardenleveraged their extensive background in gaming to specialise in creating mobile games for families. The company's portfolio of games includes 'Fairy Farm,''Farmdale' and 'Fairy Kingdom.'