Spin Master says investment in leading ventures with promising ideas will increase access to potentially game-changing thinking and concepts.

Spin Master has announced the creation of Spin Master Ventures (SMV) with a focus on accelerating growth in each of the company’s three creative centres comprising Toys, Entertainment and Digital Games, through strategic minority investments. SMV’s investment mandate will be centred on medium and long-term trends including emerging technologies, pioneering services and other areas where Spin Master’s offering can be strengthened.

“We’ve always stayed true to our entrepreneurial DNA based on innovation, openness to ideas, partnerships and pushing boundaries,” commented Ronnen Harary, Spin Master’s co-founder and board chair. “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. 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.”

SMV will be led by experienced industry veterans, and Spin Master will initially allocate $100m to the project, funded from existing internal resources. SMV’s strategy will comprise minority investments and will include both early-stage companies, with investments in new teams and novel ideas, as well as providing growth capital to emerging business that have proven product and market fit. SMV’s geographic focus will be global, but is initially expected to be North American and Europe-centric.

To launch the initiative, SMV has made minority investments in two companies aligned with Spin Master’s growth plans within the Digital Games creative centre. Nørdlight is a mobile game development company based in Stockholm which has delivered some of the largest grossing mobile digital games in history and will help accelerate Spin Master’s strategy of monetizing its owned IP in the digital games space.

The second investment is in Hoot Reading, an online tutoring service that provides children with live, 1:1 reading lessons with experienced teachers via a video chat platform that allows for real-time on-screen collaboration between child and teacher. Hoot Reading aims to help as many kids as possible to become not only proficient, but excellent readers.

“Establishing Spin Master Ventures enables Spin Master to work with extraordinary companies and teams, providing them with capital and access to our deep knowledge and expertise to drive their ideas and businesses forward,” added Anton Rabie, Spin Master’s co-founder and director. “Spin Master Ventures aims to become the ultimate partnership generator, a tool for widening the company’s networks, knowledge and relationships. By partnering with these entrepreneurs, we can bolster our leadership position within the children’s entertainment industry.”

More information can be found at www.spinmasterventures.com.