Hiro Capital leads $6.4m of investment in two-game innovators: Seattle-based AAA Studio Twin Suns Corp and Lisbon-based Instant Games Platform FRVR.
FRVR’s frictionless instant games platform and the veteran AAA team of newly-founded Twin Suns Corp are the latest investments by Hiro Capital, the entrepreneur-led VC fund for creators in Video Games, the Metaverse, Esports, and Gamified Fitness.
Twin Suns Corp and FRVR will use Hiro’s $6.4m of investment to expand game development and to accelerate growth.
- Twin Suns Corp is a new AAA-game studio, founded by >20-year industry veterans – Tim Longo Jr. (Star Wars: Republic Commando, Halo, Tomb Raider), Forest Swartout Large (Hitman and Tomb Raider), and Jeff Morris (Gears of War and Unreal Tournament).
- Twin Suns Corp is building a next-gen AAA cross-platform title that will launch an exciting new IP franchise;
- A further 15 veteran team members will be joining Twin Suns over the summer, all with senior experience on blockbuster titles such as Star Wars, Tomb Raider, Hitman, Halo, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Gears of War, Unreal Tournament, and Avengers. We’ll be revealing more of Twin Suns Corp’s team members later this summer.
- FRVR is a leading instant games ecosystem platform powering frictionless gameplay on any device, founded by Chris Benjaminsen (Yahoo, PlayerScale)) and Brian Meidell (Cape, GameAnalytics)
- With already >1bn unique players, FRVR has signed partnerships that put their tech and games onto billions of devices;
- Twin Suns Corp and FRVR join other creator-founded Games teams Polyarc (Seattle), Snowprint (Stockholm/Berlin), Lightfox (Seattle), Double Loop Games (San Francisco), Flavourworks (London), and Happy Volcano (Belgium) in the Hiro portfolio, alongside pioneers in Games Streaming and Gamified Fitness, LIV.tv (Prague), FitXR (London), Zwift and Nurvv (London).
Twin Suns Corp
Ian Livingstone, Partner, Hiro Capital, said, “I had the pleasure of working with Tim Longo on the Tomb Raider reboot before he went on to become Creative Director at 343 Industries to develop Halo 5. Tim is hugely talented and has assembled a fantastic team at Twin Suns. We are delighted to be partnering with Tim and his team and are incredibly excited by the potential of their creative vision and their ability to develop groundbreaking new titles in the AAA space.”
Hiro Capital is joined by veteran investor Ed Fries through his 1Up Fund to bring the founding investment into Twin Suns Corp. The legendary team will be working to build their own IP to help fuel first-person and third-person AAA action games. Already a team of fifteen experienced developers, Twin Suns Corp now accelerates its recruiting drive. Interested candidates can visit the Twin Suns Corp site for more information on open positions.
Tim Longo, Co-Founder, and CEO, Twin Suns Corp, said “Forming this company and team is about bringing incredible people together to collaborate and make uniquely creative and amazing action games. Twin Suns Corp is literally a dream team of expert talent from across the planet and I can’t wait to work with all of them again.”
FRVR
FRVR has developed an instant games technology platform that allows universal publishing of games on any platform, application, or device, bringing the games to the players, anywhere they are already spending their time. Using frictionless technology to deliver a smooth experience, players can join games right away from inside their favorite social apps. FRVR supports a player ecosystem with billions of users worldwide, which enables game developers to launch new concepts across many channels and get to a global scale fast.
Luke Alvarez, Founding Partner of Hiro Capital said, “Brian and Chris are extremely smart and ambitious and the technology they have built for instant games is super-scaleable and inherently social. FRVR is live on some of the biggest platforms in the world. We are really excited to be working with them on the next stage of their journey to build a truly global leader.”
Hiro Capital joins Games industry legend David Helgason (Founder of Unity), Accel, Makers Fund, and other leading investors in the FRVR journey.
FRVR founder, Brian Meidell said, “We are excited to work with Hiro due to their deep knowledge of the games industry and their expertise in quality content. Now that we have reached over a billion players, we are looking forward to leveling up our content and show the kind of deep experiences that are possible in these contexts.”
Hiro’s creator-first approach supports some of the best teams in the industry to build futuristic new worlds. Hiro will have more announcements soon about follow-on projects and investments.
