After an acquisition spree, Keywords Studios is moving into the world of startup investment
The Dublin-based games industry giant has already agreed to put £300,000 into one UK outfit.
IRELAND-BASED VIDEO GAMES industry giant Keywords Studios has launched a new venture wing and announced its first investment.
The Dublin-headquartered company, which offers games development services, has incorporated Keywords Ventures in the UK with plans to make “modest” investments in tech firms involved in the games industry.
The new venture outfit will propose investments to Keywords Studios’ board, which will agree funding on a case-by-case basis. The committee for the investment arm of the company will be made up of senior members of the Keywords Studios’ executive team.
To coincide with the launch of its investment wing, Keywords Studios has also announced plans to invest £300,000 in UK firm AppSecTest Limited – the creator of cloud-based games testing platform AS Analyser.
The investment is dependent upon the tech firm hitting different development milestones and is part of a series A funding round into the startup, which is pre-revenue.
As part of the investment round, Keywords Studios has taken a 45% stake in the firm and entered an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement to commercialise AS Analyser. The games firm plans to begin client trials of the product this month.
According to Keywords Studios chief executive Andrew Day, the group plans to make “relatively small investments” and its annual investments are unlikely to exceed 5% of the annual spend on acquisitions.
Andrew Day
Based on its year-on-year acquisition spend, analysts at stockbrokers Davy said they expected the firm’s annual investment kitty to total roughly €3.8 million.
Keywords Studios, which is valued at nearly €1.3 billion on the London Stock Exchange, has been on an acquisition binge in recent years and snapped up dozens of firms to add to its wider group.
In April, it acquired Cord Worldwide and Laced Music – two firms which make music for video games – for a total consideration of €5.2 million.
Last month, it also acquired Hollywood-based video game production company Blindlight in a deal worth up to $10 million.
Results
Keywords Studios was founded in Ireland in 1998. It started out as a provider of translation and localisation services for industry giants like EA Sports, Konami and Ubisoft and has added more services to its offering through acquisitions of smaller firms.
Keywords Studios’ annual results for 2017 showed the firm’s revenues increased by more than €54 million to pass the €151 million mark, while pre-tax profits also rose by €12 million to €26.3 million.
Headcount internationally at the firm also shot up, with the total number of people working at the company more than doubling to 3,167. Several hundred of its staff are based in Dublin.
