1Up Ventures

1Up Ventures (also referred to as the 1Up Fund) is a venture capital firm that invests exclusively in game developers and organizes its portfolio founders into a curated global peer community. The firm describes its approach as building a diverse and inclusive community of experienced and creative independent game developers, on the premise that founders working together can improve each other's outcomes.

The firm invests at seed and Series A stages with an average check of roughly $500,000, positioning itself as a follow-on investor rather than a round lead — effectively a "community add-on" to a studio's financing. Its stated plan is around 50 such checks, and roughly one-third of its portfolio companies are described as female-founded or co-founded. Sector coverage spans gaming/VR, consumer and web3/crypto, with investing focused on the United States.

The partnership is led by general partner Ed Fries, a former Microsoft vice president who built and ran the company's game publishing business through the launch of the first Xbox and has served as a board member and adviser to game development and venture-backed technology companies. Kelly Wallick, founder of the Indie MEGABOOTH and a former IGF chairperson, joined at the fund's inception and is now a full partner focused on community building. Chris Wheaton, a Stanford MBA with more than 20 years of experience as a CFO, COO and general manager, serves as fund administrator. Emily Greer, co-founder and CEO of Double Loop Games and previously co-founder and CEO of Kongregate, is a venture partner.

Business model

The firm operates as a venture capital fund, deploying investor capital into equity stakes in game studios. It states that the majority of its management fees are directed toward shared services for its portfolio community, including industry data, expert sessions and retreats.

As a venture fund, it earns management fees — the majority of which it says are spent on community programming for portfolio companies — and returns from equity investments.

Traction

The firm's partners have presented at the Game Developers Conference, delivering a 2023 talk on equity investment in games (available on the GDC Vault) and a 2026 talk on how studio funding works.

Latest developments

Ed Fries and Emily Greer prepared a 2026 GDC talk covering how studio funding decisions are made and how risk is evaluated, walking through venture capital, publishing deals, crowdfunding, user-acquisition financing, revenue-based financing and IP licensing as funding paths for studios.