INK Games

WHO'S ROBERT TOWLES AND WHAT'S INK GAMES?

I’m a successful consumer product and mobile gaming entrepreneur and gaming investor with multiple multimillion dollar exits. Prior to a $100M+ exit to Caesars Interactive Entertainment, I led the launch and growth of a 65,000 user platform, generating $45M+ annual run rate in the highly competitive health and fitness niche. Today I’m building INK Games together with a fantastic team. INK is the world’s first social commerce and gaming platform that will pay users for their global reach. Through a unique INK ID, creators can invite the masses to INK-enabled titles and get paid for the revenues associated with their viral reach, perpetually.

YOUR FUNDRAISING PROCESS BEFORE FUNDEN

INK’s founding team has more than $100M in exits in the gaming industry under their belt. This made our life easier when it came to raising our Series A. We knew the right people and we had a clear process to follow to gain their interest. However, our plans are incredibly ambitious and we felt that we needed some extra help from experts who can help us craft a Series B strategy and cast an ever wider net of global VCs. This is where Funden came in - their knowledge about fundraising and their network reach is what we really needed to approach our Series B raise.

WHAT WAS THE MAIN ISSUE YOU WERE FACING AND HOW DID FUNDEN HELP YOU SOLVE IT?

We are an ambitious team of 40 with our sights set on disrupting the entire gaming industry. We’re incredibly busy and need to stay focused on achieving our goals.

Funden was crucial in helping us preserve our resources that otherwise would have been dedicated to fundraising.

"AS A CEO, I SE E FUNDEN AS OUR EXTENDED TEA M AT INK RATHER THAN AN EXTERNAL SERVICE PROVIDER - AT A FRACTION OF THE COST. "

ANY SUGGESTIONS TO FOUNDERS WHO ARE GOING THROUGH THEIR FIRST RAISE?

If you truly have massive ambitions, don’t settle for just capital. Aim for a strategic partner who can enable your growth.

While you as a founder and your team are the most important ingredient to fulfill your vision, the right VC can be the “turbo-booster” that you need to achieve your startup dreams.

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN MOST IMPRESSED WITH ?

Funden’s commitment, effectiveness and proactivity. When I decided to hire them, I wouldn’t expect that their team would be so committed to INK and able to deeply understand our vision.

This translated into a high level of effectiveness, since they were able to communicate with VCs as if they were part of the INK’s team.

Last but not least, I really enjoyed Funden’s proactivity of going the extra mile - they have never stopped suggesting new avenues or adapting our strategy where we felt that things were not going as planned.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE FOR F UND EN TO PUT YOU IN FRONT OF THE RIGHT INVESTORS?

While the process is still on-going, we got our first meeting booked with a top gaming VC within a few weeks. We are quite picky about the investors we want to work with and we’re not in a rush.

The Funden team knows that we’d rather spend more time finding the right strategic growth partner than committing to the first fund we come across.

Steve and his team were able to provide us with a great stream of introductions without compromising on quality