Keywords Studios (KWS), which supplies technical services to the video games industry, has launched an investment arm – Keywords Ventures. This will take modest stakes in ventures that complement Keywords’ own, and where the technologies and services in question could benefit Keywords’ client base of games developers and publishers.
'KWV' will be run by an investment committee comprising senior members of Keywords’ executive team. Management says annual investment in KWV isn’t expected to exceed 5 per cent of its yearly acquisition spend.
In the same breath, Keywords announced KVS’s first investment. It will buy a 45 per cent shareholding in a pre-revenue company called AppSecTest for up to £300,000. AppSecTest created AS Analyser, a cloud-based automatic testing platform that analyses apps for compliance with GDPR – the EU’s new data privacy rules. Keywords has also obtained an exclusive global licence to commercialise AS Analyser; client trials will start in July.
