“We want to take more risks” – email-based publisher Pantaloon raises funding to develop new publishing platform and back more games

Pantaloon, which started life as an email newsletter curating new indie games before expanding into publishing in 2025, has announced a £150k investment to expand its team and fund development of a new publishing platform.

The investment came from a small group of established industry figures including Markus Wilding (ex-Private Division and 2K), Fernando Rizo and Alastair Hebson (Caboodle Games), Benjamin Lavery (Trailer Farm) and Steven Yau (formerly at King and Playfish). Funds also came from back-end provider LootLocker, which is partnering with Pantaloon to develop “a new and bespoke publishing platform to power its innovative direct-to-consumer initiatives.”

The investment builds on the success of the Pantaloon newsletter, which co-founder Jamin Smith says now stands at almost 40,000 subscribers, who complete themed puzzles to be granted game keys or pay £3.99 a month to guarantee access. By cultivating a direct relationship with players looking for the games that meet Pantaloon’s credo of “brave and bold”, the company has built a highly effective marketing channel for the titles it promotes, with an average email open rate of 50% that spikes over 90% for key drops.

“We’re serving up these interesting works over a number of months, we are gradually building this audience of players who are hungry for a specific type of slightly more eclectic, slightly more cerebral, weirder type of experience,” says Smith. “And then when we do choose to publish the games that we’re now publishing, the audience is already built.”

The platform has powered successful launches for Sub-Verge, Occlude and It Takes a War, and which is now being used for marketing partnerships with other publishers including Raw Fury and Fellow Traveller. Pantaloon has three titles in development for 2026, Smith said, and is seeking more. The company offers funding to developers to a maximum of £100k, with what he describes as “traditional” revenue splits on the backend but no recoup period. “I don’t believe in recoup, so we don’t recoup a specific number before our devs see royalties. They get paid day one, like we do.”

The vision is a tight integration between funding, development and marketing. “I’ve been in businesses where there is a disconnect between where the money comes from and the job of bringing these games to market,” Smith says. “With Pantaloon we want to erase that friction in a way that brings better games to market, that we can put our weight behind.”

“We want to take more risks, ultimately. I’ve got this theory that risk has left the equation from publishing – there’s all these boxes that have to be ticked and criteria that have to be met before a project is signed, and ultimately that leaves gold on the table. We’re trying to invite risk back into the equation, find weirder, more wonderful, more creatively refreshing work that we can put our names to.”

In a time when funding is notoriously hard to come by, this was not a pitch many investors wanted to hear. “You literally see the eyebrows raise,” says Smith. The winning element was the “new and bespoke” publishing platform, still under development with LootLocker, which will provide “a connective tissue that links the label, the games, and the players through the Primo subscription and beyond.”

“We’re trying to think very sustainably about back catalogue, about longevity, about the long tail, and dovetailing that with the deep CRM that we’re building,” says Smith. “So it’s part of a bigger vision, and that is where investors then start to be like ‘oh, okay, so there’s more under the surface here than the newsletter.”

For his part, he was looking for investors who could support the enterprise as well as fund it. “We needed people to surround the business who could cover different disciplines, open different doors, allow us to punch above our weight. So for me, it was very much a people-led endeavor. First, find the right people that liked the mission and the values that we’re trying to embody, and then hopefully the money would follow.”

The plan is now to grow, keeping an eye on costs and sustaining the newsletter while the new platform is readied for launch later in the year. He’s not worried about the brand’s niche focus affecting its performance. “If we start letting other work through the door that hasn’t got that narrow focus, we lose all our authenticity and what makes Pantaloon, Pantaloon. We’ve built a fairly dedicated community off the back of this more weirder, unhinged, unexpected work.”

“And I’ve always keen to make the distinction: this doesn’t just mean silly or goofy or wacky, it’s unexpected, genre rug-pulls, narrative weirdness, subject matter that is unexplored. HORSES, which was pulled from Steam a while back – that’s a fascinating project and that’s the kind of game I think we are set up to hopefully support.”

“That’s not to say we don’t do more traditional work, but we always like something with a spin and something that has a headline built in as well.”