With Thunderful welcoming Robot Teddy into the fold, the company will now have three key areas of business: games development, games publishing, and the new games investment pillar, Thunderful Investment, that will be led by Robot Teddy.
“The acquisition of Robot Teddy supports our strategy to grow our Games segment and the Group as a whole,” said Brjánn Sigurgeirsson, CEO of Thunderful Group. “Robot Teddy and their founder Callum Underwood have established a well-earned reputation for their work in the industry. They are exceptionally well-connected and keep their ears to the ground. Along with everything else they do, they will help us invest in superior games and studios”.
“From the moment we began thinking about adding an investment pillar to our games publishing and games development businesses, Robot Teddy stood out in our minds as the obvious partner,” said Agostino Simonetta, Chief Strategy & Investment Officer at Thunderful Games. “The proven expertise that Callum and the team at Robot Teddy bring to Thunderful will be invaluable and we are really excited about the work we are going to be doing together.”
Thunderful Investment will establish two new funds, which will be managed in collaboration with Robot Teddy to bridge gaps where there is currently a lack of options in the industry. As well as managing these funds, Robot Teddy will continue to offer support to developers who want to self-publish.
The first of the new Thunderful Investment funds will be targeted at the development of game prototypes and vertical slices. The paucity of prototype funding is a huge problem in a games industry that currently favors those that already have substantial financial reserves. This fund will help redress that balance and unleash the creativity of independent creators. The second fund will support the development of VR games, a booming sector that is rife with opportunity when it comes to self-publishing. VR project funding is sorely under-served, and up until this point has been focused on a small number of publishers, platform funds, or investment.
Robot Teddy brings years of experience and a demonstrable record of success working in self-publishing, funding, scouting and business development. This, combined with its background bringing indie and VR projects to fruition, makes Robot Teddy well-placed to undertake this exciting new work. With the support of Thunderful, Robot Teddy will be able to leverage its talent working in these areas more effectively than ever before.
Robot Teddy will continue to be headed up by founder Callum Underwood, with Ranjani Natarajan as COO, and continue to work with its clients and partners, which include Among Us developer Innersloth, SUPERHOT, Gang Beasts developer Boneloaf, What The Golf? developer Triband, Bunnyhug and many more. For these clients and others, Robot Teddy manages business development, release management, and strategy.
“I'm delighted to be joining Thunderful. Having them believe in our vision and goals, and understand the path we want to forge for self-published devs in the industry, is rare and wonderful.” said Robot Teddy founder Callum Underwood. “They're giving us the support we need to develop and implement long-term plans that just wouldn't be possible otherwise. We get to manage our own funds, we get to still work with all our clients, and we still get to be Robot Teddy. Hooray!”