Spike Laurie

Spike is a Partner at Hiro Capital where he focuses on the fund’s games and games technology investments.  Spike has over a decade of experience in the games industry and five years as a VC. 

Spike held several key leadership positions at ESL, prior to its billion dollar exit to Savvy Gaming, responsible for building esports production and business infrastructure in the UK, South America and United States. During his time at WB in the Digital Publishing team Spike led global esports strategy on Mortal Kombat X. Spike is the co-founder of Prize Payments, a global payment processing platform for sports and esports organisations. An avid gamer, Spike has been actively playing competitive online games, including Counter Strike, since 2000. 

Games Financing - What Happened? What Happens Next?

Join Spike Laurie, Partner at Hiro Capital, in this first-hand account of the past six years of games industry financing. What went wrong? Did the financiers get carried away? Were founders reckless? 

Did the abundance of venture capital warp the games market irrevocably? Why have so many venture-backed studios failed so spectacularly? And most importantly, what does the Future of Games financing look like? 

Spike looks honestly at the effects of venture financing on the games market and the part it played in creating the industry of 2024 and beyond.