According to VentureBeat, Enry’s Island SpA, a publicly listed venture builder, is launching a video game to teach startup fundamentals while reporting explosive growth. The company saw revenues jump 250% year-over-year, with its stock price up 116% YTD. It’s launching “Enry’s Island AdVentures,” billed as the world’s first video game to learn how to launch and scale startups, aiming to democratize VC knowledge for “long tail users.” A major US Kickstarter campaign for the game is planned for Q1 2026. The firm is also steering its entire deal flow strategy toward the gaming sector, planning to invest over $5M in equity across 10 game studios next year. To support this, the board has been expanded with new members like Alessandro Pacciana and Victor Pizzoni.
The Three-Layer Model and Big Numbers
Here’s the thing: Enry’s Island isn’t just a VC firm. It’s built on what it calls the “Enry’s Model,” which is basically three stacked businesses. The top layer is the main venture builder itself, which just closed a $20M Series A. Then there’s a software layer, HUI SpA, a SaaS platform for VCs that’s grown revenues and its user base by 350%—it got a $25M round. And then, weirdly, there’s a “Space Layer”: R5 Holding, a phygital coworking and luxury service for investors that’s reportedly sitting on a $1B term sheet and aiming for an IPO in late 2026. It’s a holistic, some might say convoluted, ecosystem. But you can’t argue with a 250% revenue pop. That gets attention.
The VC Revolution or a Gamified Gimmick?
So the big idea is a “VC Revolution” through a video game. Chairman Luigi Valerio Rinaldi says he agrees with Elon Musk that gaming is the best way to teach, and he’s applying it to startups. The goal is to break the “monopoly of the VC cathedrals in Silicon Valley” and take innovation “to the streets and into their phones.” Now, is this a genuine democratization of complex finance and business-building skills? Or is it a promotional tool wrapped in a retro-gaming aesthetic? The Kickstarter plan, using 1980s gaming gurus and influencers, feels very marketing-driven. The line “gamers will become shareholders and shareholders will become gamers” sounds cool, but what does it actually mean for building viable companies? It’s a bold experiment, for sure.
Betting the Farm on Gaming
The most concrete strategic shift here is the full pivot to gaming as an investment sector. Enry’s Island is calling it a “Blue Ocean” strategy—a market where no VC competitor has moved in a structured way. They’re finalizing joint ventures with major studios and planning that $5M+ across 10 studios in 2026. This is a huge, concentrated bet. It makes the video game initiative seem less like a side project and more like a core piece of a larger gaming-focused thesis. They’re not just investing in game studios; they’re building a tool (the game) to potentially source talent and ideas from the very community they’re investing in. It’s clever, if it works.
Can You Really Gameify Venture Capital?
Look, the numbers they’re posting are undeniably strong. A 220% market cap increase in 18 months is wild. But the whole proposition rests on a massive “what if.” What if complex startup execution can be meaningfully taught through a video game? What if the “long tail” of users engages with it deeply enough to produce real, fundable innovation? And what if the luxury investor coworking space fits into this puzzle? They’re combining very top-down institutional finance with a very bottom-up, community-driven gaming play. It’s either a visionary new model or a house of cards built on buzzwords. The 2026 Kickstarter and the planned IPOs for HUI and R5 will be the real test. Until then, it’s one of the most fascinating—and bizarre—stories in venture capital.
