Firy, owner of Skillz and other game brands, said it has completed the sale of its entire equity stake in Exit Games for $55 million.
The stake was 10.5% of Exit Games’ outstanding share capital. Now Exit Games, which Skillz bought for $50 million back in 2021, is now independent again. The transaction closed on Friday, October 2, 2026, and Firy received the proceeds in full.
“Exit Games’ management has built a great business around Photon, and we are rooting for
them,” said Andrew Paradise, CEO and Founder of Firy, in a statement. “We invested in Exit Games in 2021, at what turned out to be the height of the venture market over the last decade. Five years later, the average 2021-vintage fund has distributed five cents on the dollar, and most of that vintage is still sitting in illiquid marks. We are exiting in cash and above our purchase price. Cash back on the balance sheet gives FIRY optionality in our other endeavors.”
The sale represents a fully realized cash return of approximately 1.1x Firy’s original investment, which was made in August 2021 near the peak of private technology valuations, according to Pitchbook. By comparison, 2021-vintage U.S. venture capital funds had distributed an average of 0.05 times of paid-in capital at their five-year mark, the lowest of any vintage after five years since 1997.
Firy’s realized return is approximately 22 times that average. Firy acquired its minority stake in Exit Games, the Hamburg-based developer of the Photon multiplayer networking technology, for a purchase price of $50 million in August 2021 under an agreement entered into by the company under its former name, Skillz.
Firy is a global holding company built to fuel business potential. Through its growing portfolio,
including Skillz, RZR, and Beamable, FIRY operates at the intersection of content, identity,
commerce, and performance marketing. By leveraging first-party data, enterprise-scale infrastructure, and scalable operating systems, Firy enables scalable growth while maintaining
a disciplined focus on capital efficiency and long-term value creation.
Exit Games GmbH, based in Hamburg, Germany, develops Photon, the multiplayer networking
technology behind thousands of games across all major engines and platforms, including global hits such as Stumble Guys. Founder-owned and self-funded, Exit Games is on a mission to make Photon the standard for multiplayer.