US private equity firm Mobeus takes stake valuing the board game company at £50m
Big Potato Games, the board game company founded in 2014, has received backing from a US private equity firm.
Mobeus has purchased a minority stake in the game maker, valuing it at £50m – though the deal faced hurdles along the way.
Speaking to The Times, Big Potato co-CEO and co-founder Dean Tempest revealed that tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump threatened the deal. The company designs its games in London, and has manufacturing partners in China.
Dean described the tariffs as a “grenade” adding: “It was a long process because tariffs got in the way of the deal.”
The economic sanctions were announced in the middle of closing the deal with Mobeus, “so we spent a bit of time working together to just make sure we’re all comfortable with what that meant for future growth.”
Big Potato is now working with factories in Vietnam and India.
Adam Wright, co-CEO of Big Potato, said the company’s games had found a strong audience in the states thanks to a consumer culture that embraces board games through game nights.
“‘Games night’ is a big thing that people get together and do,” he said. “Sometimes people [in the UK] see it as a nerdy pastime, but it definitely isn’t in the US.”
