Nicolo Laurent, former CEO of
Riot Games, announced this Thursday, March 12 on his X account the launch of
Leeroy Jenkins Kapital (LJK), which he joins as a founding partner. Having joined the publisher of
League of Legends in November 2009 as vice president of international, he became CEO in October 2017 before stepping down in September 2023. He ultimately left
Riot Games in August 2025 after several months serving as an advisor.
In the announcement on social media, Nicolo Laurent described LJK as an “early-stage fund dedicated to European video game companies.” For this project, he is joined by Clément Combal and Alexis Khouri, former Managing Partner at Orange Ventures and former Vice President, Head of 3D & Immersive at Adobe. In the same announcement, the trio stated that they will “focus on a small number of genres we know well, care deeply about, and believe still hold exceptional untapped potential.”
“We want to help close that gap”
The new fund, therefore, aims largely to support the development of games in Europe, a point strongly emphasized in their communication: “Europe has extraordinary creative talent, but the funding ecosystem has not always matched that strength. We want to help close that gap.” LJK also explained that it will focus very specifically on supporting “early-stage projects with the potential to become forever games, starting with a genre we know deeply — craft-survival,” as Alexis Khouri indicated on LinkedIn.
After being relatively quiet for several years, Nicolo Laurent is therefore returning to the spotlight with a new project, where he likely hopes to bring the experience he gained during more than 15 years at Riot Games to new studios. In 2021, a lawsuit was filed against him and Riot Games, accusing them of sexual harassment and sex/gender-based discrimination, as well as wrongful termination and labor law violations. The case was reported by the American outlet
VICE on February 9, 2021, which had access to a copy of the complaint filed in the state of California.
The North American publisher
stated on May 7, 2024, that “
the arbitrator overseeing Sharon O'Donnell Vs. Riot Games Inc., Et Al. issued his decision” and that “
all claims in the January 2021 lawsuit against Riot Games and our former CEO, Nicolo Laurent, were unfounded.” In a final update published in December 2024 on Riot Games’ website, the company added that “t
he arbitrator's original award was confirmed by the Los Angeles Superior Court. In October 2024, the arbitrator awarded Riot and Mr. Laurent $20,000 in sanctions against Ms. O'Donnell for her online conduct.”
