Juicy Button Games, a new independent games studio based in Cyprus, which was co-founded by the creators of Total Battle, Pixel Gun 3D and Mighty Party, on Thursday announced the successful completion of a $3 million seed round led by The Games Fund.

The Games Fund, which has offices in Cyprus and New York, is a specialist early-stage VC fund that invests in outstanding video game developers and GameTech companies.

According to the announcement, the investment will fuel Juicy Button Games’ development of an innovative mobile-first 4x strategy game from its headquarters in Limassol, Cyprus.

The company explained that the 4x genre is typically dominated by studios from China and, in its quest to create a worthy European challenger, Juicy Button Games has assembled a founding superteam which has been responsible for mobile titles grossing over $700 million.

Each co-founder, the company continued, brings a unique skill set to Juicy Button Games to create the perfect blend of top-tier 4x mechanics, slick user experience, and data-backed creative marketing.

The founders include Alexander Kravchuk, Anton Sinelnikov, and Aleksandr Zaytsev. Kravchuk is a mobile gaming veteran with over 20 years of experience.

Moreover, he is the creator of Total Battle, a leading MMO strategy title with $222 million in lifetime revenue and 43 million lifetime unique players.

Anton Sinelnikov is the co-founder and game design director of Cubic Games, which was acquired by Nexters in 2022 in a $100 million deal.

Cubic Games is best known for its legendary mobile FPS, Pixel Gun 3D, which has grossed over $220 million on mobile and achieved 190 million downloads.

Also, Sinelnikov is participating in Juicy Button Games’ seed round alongside The Games Fund as an angel investor.

Zaytsev is the co-founder of Panoramik Games, a studio specialising in mobile midcore fantasy games including Mighty Party.

Panoramik Games’ titles have achieved more than 70 million downloads, with lifetime revenue of almost $180 million across its portfolio.

Alexander Kravchuk, co-founder at Juicy Button Games, said that “to launch Juicy Button Games, we brought together all four key elements: leading marketing expertise, cutting-edge tech, massive game design knowledge, and smart capital”.

“Each of us,” he continued, “has been in the games industry for decades and built successful companies, best in class”.

“We united to alloy our collective expertise and resources and pour it into building the best 4x strategy game on the market,” he added, noting that “we’re set to launch and scale top-quality, deep, and juicy games that players will enjoy for years”.

“We have known The Games Fund team for years and are excited to join forces with them as our first investor for this journey from Cyprus to global top charts,” Kravchuk concluded.

What is more, Ilya Karpinskiy, co-founder and General Partner at The Games Fund, said that “at The Games Fund we are big believers in the mobile games market,” noting that “if you want to survive in the red ocean you better be a shark”.

“Alexander, Anton, and Aleksandr are AAA founders and gurus in their domains with proven track records and top-grossing games under their belts,” he stated.

Additionally, he stressed that “we can not imagine a better founding team for such an ambitious goal!”

“Europe’s game development scene is an untapped pool of opportunities, and we are on a mission to connect outstanding gaming founders from overlooked regions with the global industry from the United States to South Korea,” Karpinskiy said.

“We are proud and humbled that both young and seasoned founders trust TGF to be their founding investor and can’t wait to see them building global companies,” he concluded.

The Games Fund has raised $50 million to invest in gaming companies and founders from emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe, such as ROAR Games, Obelisk Studio, Made on Earth Games, KEK Entertainment and Jarvi Games.