Strategic & commercial support for
entrepreneurial games businesses

Fixing the model

We’ve supported over 100 games businesses, seeing first hand studios which don’t have the right internal or external commercial support, often when they need it most.

We’re here to help fix that.

We provide commercial, strategic finance and legal ‘co-founder’ level support.

We work closely with you across the whole lifecycle of your business - from startup, to scaleup and beyond!

What we do

  • We’re excited about being involved from day one so you hit the ground running.

    We help you hit the ground running including Companies House registration, founders agreements, share allocations, adviser agreements, seed investment paperwork, employment and NDA templates

  • We have extensive in-house experience and pride ourselves on our responsiveness.

    Think of us as your legal and finance team on Slack, there when you need us for anything legal, financial or commercial.

  • We help define your strategy, translating your vision into a robust financial plan, whether that be for a fundraise, exit or other purpose.

    We forensically use your underlying game and financial data to substantiate your plans, often presenting fresh perspectives as to what drives your business and the future direction of travel.

  • We use our extensive experience from all sides of the table to help you get the best terms both commercially and legally, whether that be publishing agreements, work-for-hire engagements, platform/distribution agreements, IP license agreements, marketing or other deals.

  • We'll ensure that you're ready for your next level of investment to wow your future investors: you're operationally set up to scale, we pre-empt due diligence red flags and make your business as investable as possible, you have best in class systems and processes to smash future investors' expectations.

  • Whether it be for the Board, investors or Management Team, we like to deep dive into your data to create visual and insightful reporting for the business, focused on driving operational improvements.

  • Selling all or part of your company is stressful, it's when you most need someone who's been there before.

    We'll help you navigate the process and fight your corner. We've seen the buy side tactics first hand and will be there to ensure you maximise your business’ value.

We work as an extension to your senior leadership team

We’ve genuine in-house experience- we've held C level positions at the most exciting games companies in the world so aren’t yet another external consultant

We're passionate - we’re not a faceless firm, what you see is what you get. We pride ourselves on working super responsively

We're flexible - we tailor our approach to ensure our work is cost-effective and motivations are aligned with your priorities

The Team

Each of us combine over a decade of expertise in commercial, financial and/or legal fields with a passion for the games industry.

  • Steve has held various CFO and senior Finance positions, all within high growth, entrepreneurial businesses, leading them on their journey through to exit.

    This includes Fall Guys developer, Mediatonic (EBITDA growth from $4M to $70M in two years through to sale to Epic Games) and Ember, growing the team from 20 to 100 people in three years before selling to Silicon Valley PE firm, HGGC.

    Prior to founding Lvl Up, Steve was a Director at Epic Games, sitting within their Strategic Finance Team.

  • Felix is a lawyer who has extensive experience of advising fast growing businesses from incorporation through to exit.

    His passion for all things games has led him to a number of senior roles within the industry. He was General Counsel at Mediatonic (Fall Guys developer), Outright Games (family console games publisher), The Irregular Corporation (indie PC games publisher) and held Senior Counsel positions at Epic Games and Miniclip (mobile games publisher).

    Felix’s deep in-house experience as a senior stakeholder for developers and publishers means he is able to combine commercial advice and legal advice on many soft spots for studios such as commercial, IP, corporate, licensing, privacy or other areas.

Testimonials

  • Chris Lee


    "Nothing short of transformational for the studios they have helped.

    They are able to dig deeper into the organisation and decision making to help studio leadership better understand assumptions, actions and forecasts on future updates and product releases."

  • Kirsty Rigden, CEO of FuturLab (acquired by Miniclip)


    “Steve and Felix were amazing! They were pro-active and supportive every step of the way and made it all stress free, becoming a natural extension to our leadership team.

    They added so much, not just from a process perspective but also pre-empting issues, helping me focus on key points and adding real value.

    On top of their obvious experience and expertise, they're also just lovely people to work with. They have my eternal thanks!”

  • Dave Bailey, Co-Founder of Mediatonic (acquired by Epic Games)


    “Steve and Felix are outstandingly competent, driven and detailed, but also good natured and highly trustworthy people to have on the team.

    They both love what they do, and this makes working with them a pleasure.

    I can wholeheartedly recommend Steve and Felix to any video games company”

  • Michael Martinez, CEO of Funcraft


    “It's hard to overstate the positive impact of working with Lvl Up. Their contributions have quickly become indispensable to how we operate our business.

    I absolutely view them as an extension of our team and look forward to their continued valued counsel.”

  • Li Ma


    ”After working with them on both sides of the table for some years, the three words I’d use to summarise Steve and Felix are: ‘capable, flexible, and reliable’.

    More importantly, they are also great fun to work with.

    A golden team. Period.”

  • Dara Leung, Former Head of M&A at Epic Games


    ”Highly adept in both operational components of gaming including; measuring game performance, player health, and game economy to the corporate finance and legal components.

    It was a real pleasure, even sitting on the opposite side of the table”

Studios we’ve proudly partnered with

Lvl Up Investments

Lvl Up also invests in early-stage games businesses, typically investing between $25K to $100K.

Our focus is on pre-seed and seed rounds where we can make the most impact.  We back strong founder led businesses across the ecosystem, including content producers, publishers and platforms.

We're passionate about helping unlock the next generation of great games businesses and are actively building out a portfolio of complimentary companies which can drive value between them.

Alongside our advisory services, we believe our blend of financial backing and expert advice is unique and sets founders up for success!

We’re proud to include the following businesses within our portfolio:

Our opportunities are sourced across our network and unfortunately we aren’t able to respond to direct unsolicited approaches.