Phil Sanderson
Managing Director & Co-founder @ Griffin Gaming Partners
San Francisco, United States
Phil Sanderson is a Series B investor at Griffin Gaming Partners in San Francisco focused on Gaming and Mobile. Phil joined Ridge Ventures (fka IDG Ventures USA) as a Managing Director in September 2006. He is currently a Member of the Board of Directors at Wave and was previously a General Partner at WaldenVC for 10 years where he primarily focused on early-stage investments in new media and information technology. Phil was responsible for WaldenVCinvestments in VitalStream (VSTH), Bamboo.com (IPIX), NIKU (NIKU), Sina.com (SINA), Adknowledge and People 3 (IT) and IDG Ventures investments in Funzio (GREE). Phil currently sits on the boards of Telltale Games, Phoenix Labs, Survata, Next Games, Fresh Planet, nWay, Free Range Games, and Espresa, and led investments in Super Bit Machine, Simply Hired, BandPage, GuideSpark, AlphaDraft, Plain Vanilla Games, and Freeform.Prior to WaldenVC, he worked as an investment banker in Robertson Stephens’ New Media and Information Technology Groups. At Robertson Stephens, Phil managed initial public offerings and mergers and acquisitions assignments for CBT Systems, Computer Learning Centers, Electronic Arts, Fritz Integrated Logistics, Spectrum HoloByte, Sierra On-line, and Vantive, among others. Prior to Robertson Stephens, he worked in Goldman Sachs’ corporate finance group. Phil has also founded and operated three companies in the retail, non-profit, and manufacturing industries.He is also A Board member of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and Co-Chairman/Founder of the VC Network and the YVCA; two non-profit organizations consisting of over 1,000 venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. Each year, Phil manages social networking events which include the participation of 50% of the Valley’s General Partners. In addition, Phil is the Co-Chairman of the Board of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC).Phil received his Master of Business Administration with Honors from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics with Honors from Hamilton College. IDG Ventures USA uses the “IDG” name since IDG is a minority LP that helps IDG Ventures USA portfolio companies where applicable. By leveraging the IDG Platform – an unparalleled combination of global IT market research, media, and financing resources – we help our companies understand their markets better and penetrate them faster than their competition. This combination of international perspective, local market expertise, and resources accelerates growth and reduces the early-stage risk for our portfolio companies.
- Total investments:
- 35
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 43%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Phil Sanderson invests in
Stages Phil Sanderson invests in
Countries Phil Sanderson invests in
Investment Focus
Industry
- Gaming 13 (37%)
- Mobile 9 (26%)
- Video Games 8 (23%)
- Internet 5 (14%)
- Software 5 (14%)
Stage
- Series B 8 (23%)
- Seed 7 (20%)
- Funding Round 7 (20%)
- Series A 5 (14%)
- Series C 3 (9%)
Country
- United States 23 (66%)
- Turkey 2 (6%)
- India 1 (3%)
- Canada 1 (3%)
- Finland 1 (3%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Harmony Games
|
Harmony Games is a developer of next-generation hybrid-casual games. | $3M / Seed / Oct 25, 2023 | |
Hadi
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Hadi is a mobile games company co-founded by industry veterans focusing on casual games. | $5.3M / Seed / Apr 13, 2023 | |
Hardball Games
|
Hardball Games create interactive entertainment that allows people to interact in novel and satisfying ways. Hardball games are cross-play, multiplatform, and multiplayer. | $5.2M / Seed / Feb 09, 2023 | |
DeHorizon
|
With the rapid growth of crypto space, recent developments have greatly facilitated GameFi in going mainstream. "Play to earn" is no longer a mere slogan, but has fully come into reality. Regardless of exponential growth, a common defect in GameFi marketplace is lack of a Metaverse Game Ecosystem to develop, connect and support more andmore blockchain-based games even built on different chains. We are still in the early stages of the evolution of GameFi. For the next stage, a Metaverse Game Ecosystem is essential to make GameFi go further. That is why DeHorizon comes. | Venture - Series Unknown / Feb 18, 2022 | |
Spyke Games
|
Spyke Games is a mobile gaming company, built by a team who values creativity and innovation. We believe that when talented people unite around a single mission and are given the freedom to operate, something magical happens. The end result is the creation of games that will be played for years to come. | $55M / Seed / Jan 17, 2022 | |
|
Hadi
|
Hadi is a mobile games company co-founded by industry veterans focusing on casual games. | $5.2M / Seed / Nov 11, 2021 | |
WinZO
|
WinZO is a mobile e-sports social gaming platform that offers monetary benefits and prizes to players.The platform offers nearly 70+ games including carrom, cricket, bubble shooter, fruit samurai, knife up, memory mania, fantasy league, and trivia-based questions. WinZO hosts all its games on a single platform across multiple formats in 12+regional languages and 60% of content on our platform is consumed in non-English languages.It was founded in 2018 and headquartered in New Delhi, Delhi, India by Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore. | $65M / Series C / Jul 02, 2021 | |
Wave
|
Wave focuses on interactive virtual experiences with a mission to help artists make money at the intersection of gaming and entertainment. Wave’s technology enables musicians to create lifelike avatars of themselves that can “perform” their music on a virtual stage. Most of these virtual shows take place either on the company’s YouTube channel, butWave’s apps let users tune in on gaming consoles, phones or even the Oculus Rift VR headset. While watching a Wave, viewers can log in to comment in a chat function and give live feedback to the avatar performers. | $30M / Series B / Jun 10, 2020 | |
Phoenix Labs
|
Phoenix Labs is an independent game studio that specializes in creating AAA multiplayer games. The company focuses on providing its clients with online co-operative experiences with strong narratives. Phoenix Labs was founded in 2014 by Jesse Houston, Sean Bender, and Robin Mayne. It is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. | Series B / Feb 14, 2018 | |
nWay
|
nWay was founded in 2011 with the goal of creating fun console-quality multiplayer games for both the web and mobile platforms. All of nWay’s games will be free-to-play and will feature synchronous multiplayer gameplay. The company is led by gaming and startup veterans and is based in San Francisco.The company is currently working on its firsttitle, ChronoBlade, a free-to-play Action RPG game for the web and mobile platforms. Play the beta at www.chronoblade.com. | $11M / Series B / Dec 13, 2017 | |
| See all 35 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Griffin Gaming Partners
Griffin Gaming Partners is a venture capital firm focused exclusively on the gaming industry The firm invests across the broad gaming ecosystem, including content, software, and platforms.
Griffin Gaming Partners Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Peter Levin
Managing Director
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Phil Sanderson
Managing Director & Co-founder
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Chris Hollenbeck
Chief Financial Officer
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Emily Wang
Chief Operating Officer and Partner
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Nicholas Tuosto
Managing Director & Co-Founder
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FAQ
What does Phil Sanderson invest in?
Phil Sanderson invests primarily in Gaming, Mobile and Video Games startups, most often at Series B and Seed stage. Most of the 35 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
When did Phil Sanderson last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Phil Sanderson closed in Oct 2023. Shizune tracks 35 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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