Norbert Teufelberger-led investment firm expands egaming portfolio

FastForward Innovations, the egaming-focused investment firm advised by former bwin.party chief executive Norbert Teufelberger, has expanded its portfolio with a US$500,000 (?380,000) investment in social games developer Moon Active.

The half-a-million dollar outlay equates to a 5.9% interest in the Tel Aviv-based developer, which FastForward said had also seen investment from a number of other high-profile egaming entrepreneurs.

Moon Active, which was founded in 2011, has developed five games since its inception and also built its own in-house infrastructure, machine learning based gameplay technology and in-game personalisation mechanics.

FastForward CEO Lorne Abony said Moon Active’s proprietary technology was one of the key reasons behind its investment.

“Moon Active’s business model represents a paradigm shift in the gaming business, whereby start-ups now have the ability to build next-generation technology that industry incumbents can’t afford to ignore,” Abony said.

“[This gives] them a huge upside over the large players, and a huge opportunity to massively disrupt the market.

“Because they aren’t tied to outdated technology architecture, start-ups can innovate their products to respond to the market within days, whilst for major gaming players, those types of changes can take months or years, if at all,” he added.

In April, FastForward invested $3.5m in virtual sports and 3D casino supplier Leap Gaming – a company introduced to the firm by Teufelberger.