Finance, legal & tax support for entrepreneurial games businesses

Fixing the model

We’ve supported over 200 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 business, finance, legal and tax support that is leaner, more responsive and more effective than traditional firms.

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

What we do

Your Advisors from Inception to Exit

  • 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, accounting system setup and finance processes.

INCORPORATION

IN-HOUSE FINANCE TEAM

  • We can be accountable for your finance function, whatever stage you are at, processing all your transactions, preparing your accounts and helping you build out your team as you grow. 

  • Whether it be year-end accounts, companies house or HMRC filings, we can take that stress away and handle the preparation and submission.

  • Our fully integrated service includes preparing your payroll and paying your staff.

  • Think of us as your lawyer on Slack. Super responsive, pragmatic advice when you need it.

    No eye-watering law firm charges or delays as you are bounced around different departments.

  • 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.

LEGAL

  • As you scale, there will be increasingly complex commercial decisions. We will help you through each of these.

    We'll also help you navigate the various investment options, guiding you through the alternatives, what this will look like financially and how it typically plays out in practice.

  • 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.

STRATEGIC FINANCE

INVESTMENT / EXIT

  • 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’ll ensure that you're ready 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 across finance and legal, you have best in class systems and processes to smash future investors' expectations.

We work as an extension to your team

We’ve genuine in-house experience- we've held senior positions inside games studios and understand how to provide pragmatic advice

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 Leadership Team

  • 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.

  • Neil has also held various CFO and senior Finance positions, with a background in practice accounting and Corporate Finance.

    He has specialised in the video games industry for the last nine years. He was previously Finance Director at nDreams, having set up the finance function when they were just 25 people before they ultimately exited to Aonic for $110M. Most recently, he was the CFO at Maze Theory.

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

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)


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

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

    I can wholeheartedly recommend them to any video games company”

  • Rav Tharanee, CEO of Third Kind Games (acquired by Virtuous)

    "Lvl Up were critical in supporting us on this process. They’re not your typical adviser, supporting us in so many areas including deal negotiations, deal preparation, due diligence, coordinating advisers and generally making the process as smooth and stress free as possible. They leveraged their clear expertise and experience to drive value and deal with issues. It was fantastic working with them!”

  • Abrial Da Costa, CEO of Playdigious (acquired by Griffin Partners)

    “Lvl Up Partners played a pivotal role in the sale of the business with their professionalism, responsiveness, and commitment making them an exceptional partner to work with. Their advice delivered a tangible uplift in our valuation, at a multiple of their fees. We would not hesitate to recommend using them”

  • 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, Tencent and Vice Chair of UKIE


    ”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. 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!

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