Spin Master is introducing a new investment program that emphasizes growth in the company’s key markets. Spin Master Ventures is investing $100 million in toys, entertainment, and digital games. This effort has already resulted in minority investments in Swedish-based game studio Nordlight Games and online tutoring service Hoot Reading.
Spin Master is looking at opportunities for growth by focusing on its core strengths. The company already has successes in toys, entertainment, and digital games. That includes PAW Patrol, but it also includes properties like Gabby’s Dollhouse, which has a mobile game from Spin Master that my daughter plays constantly.
But with Spin Master Ventures, the company is looking for new ways to capitalize on its brands.
“We’ve always stayed true to our entrepreneurial DNA based on innovation, openness to ideas, partnerships, and pushing boundaries,” Spin Master cofounder and board chair Ronnen Harary said. “The pace of innovation within the toys, entertainment, and digital games industries is accelerating rapidly and by investing with a long-term view in leading ventures with promising ideas, we can increase our access to potentially game-changing thinking and concepts.”
A $100 million investment fund is likely also welcome news for developers working in the children’s entertainment space. Spin Master is stable, well-connected, and growing, and it presents a potentially beneficial alternative to taking funding from more general gaming investors like Tencent.
“Spin Master Ventures will establish us as the partner of choice for entrepreneurs looking for capital to start and grow a business in the kids’ space and will complement our acquisition strategy as well as bolster our product development pipeline,” said Harary.
So yes, if all your kids talk about is PAW Patrol, expect Spin Master to find new ways for those puppies to take over even more of your life.