Malmo, Sweden, 10 February, 2025 - Swedish game developer Dead Astronauts has raised €4 million in their first seed funding round led by Behold Ventures. Founded in 2024 by Tobias Nyman, Erik Morin, Robert Moschos, and Thomas Tedemalm, industry veterans from Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft, and Epic Games, Dead Astronauts is now expanding beyond its core team of four, by bringing together top-tier talent from both AAA and indie studios to fuel their development ambitions.
Seed round lead investor, Behold Ventures, is joined by co-investors Lifelike Capital, 1Up Ventures, Acequia Capital, and prominent angel investors Are Mack Growen, Matt Bilbey, Klaas Kersting, Asbjoern Malte Soendergaard, and Kristian Segerstråle.
We are delighted to back such an ambitious team and look forward to seeing them bring their groundbreaking vision to life. At Behold Ventures, we are passionate about supporting visionary founders who are shaping the future of interactive entertainment. Investing in a new game studio is more than just funding—it’s about empowering creative talent to push boundaries.” said Karl Magnus Troedsson, Managing Partner at Behold Ventures.
Dead Astronauts is developing an open world action-adventure game codenamed VEIL. Built in Unreal Engine 5, VEIL harnesses advanced procedural content generation and custom tools to craft a mysterious world inspired by the vast Nordic wilderness, and the unexplored cosmos.
"We are thrilled to have successfully completed our seed round and to bring our vision for Dead Astronauts to life as a next-generation game studio, with Behold Ventures leading the way,” said co-founders Erik Morin and Tobias Nyman. “While today’s market presents unique challenges, we see immense opportunities to reinvent open worlds and push game-changing technology. We’re incredibly grateful to have investors who believe in our vision and are excited to support bold new player experiences."
To learn more about Dead Astronauts and VEIL, visit the studio's LinkedIn, official website or follow them on BlueSky and Instagram.
About Dead Astronauts
Founded in 2024, Dead Astronauts is a game studio on a mission to reinvent open worlds. With a focus on technical innovation, immersive storytelling, we craft open world games that let players shape their adventure together with friends, and unleash their creativity. Our team building games consists of industry veterans from both AAA and indie studios, and we are a venture-backed company.
About Behold Ventures
Behold Ventures is an early-stage, venture capital fund investing in European video games start-ups. Founded in 2021 by games industry veterans Karl Magnus Troedsson, Sigurlína Ingvarsdóttir and Magnus Kenneby, Behold Ventures financially supports and strategically advises entrepreneurs during the first steps of launching their new companies. Behold Ventures is looking to invest in ambitious and creative founders creating both interactive entertainment and game related tools and technology.
About Lifelike Capital
Lifelike Capital is a global early stage venture fund backing passionate founders in the social, gaming and frontier technology sectors. The team is made up of founders and executives from Twitch and Tencent and are looking to support the next generation of creators and disruptors in the industry.
Acequia Capital is a leading early stage investment fund.
About 1Up VenturesAt 1Up Ventures we are building a diverse and inclusive community of the most talented, experienced, and creative independent game developers in the world. We believe that by working together we can help each other be more successful.