Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Moritz Baier-Lentz

German-American gaming and AI investor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moritz Baier-Lentz
Remove ads

Moritz Baier-Lentz is a German-American venture capitalist. He is a partner and the head of gaming & interactive media at Lightspeed Venture Partners,[1] leading the firm's investments in gaming and artificial intelligence, including agentic simulations in video games and foundation models and applications for generative media creation.[2]

Quick facts Born, Nationality ...

In 2023 and 2024, Lightspeed has been the leading venture capital investor in gaming and interactive media globally; having led rounds of aggregated $162 million[3] and $252 million[4] across both years, respectively.

Previously, Baier-Lentz was a vice president in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs, where he founded and led the firm's gaming practice.[5] A former #1 ranked competitive player of Diablo II,[1] he has invested into entrepreneurs who have led the creation of video games like Fortnite,[6] Call of Duty,[7] League of Legends,[8][9] Halo, Destiny, Overwatch, Valorant,[10] Apex Legends, Sky,[11] StarCraft II, and Warcraft III.[12]

Remove ads

Awards and professional memberships

In 2016 and 2017, Baier-Lentz was regarded by Forbes (U.S.) and Capital (Germany) as one of the most influential finance professionals in their 30 Under 30 and 40 Under 40 lists, respectively.[13][14] In 2017, he joined the German-American Atlantik-Brücke[15] and in 2023, he was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum[16] and invited to participate as a delegate in the 54th and 55th Annual Meeting in Davos.[17] Baier-Lentz holds an MBA and M.A. from Stanford University, and graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar.[18]

Remove ads

Early life and education

Baier-Lentz grew up as a first-generation high school graduate in rural Germany[19] and spent his teenage years playing Blizzard Entertainment's multiplayer action role-playing game Diablo II, culminating in a global #1 ranking among 13 million active players in 2003.[1] He used a combination of proceeds from virtual goods sales[19][20] and German national academic merit scholarships from Studienstiftung and DAAD to help finance his undergraduate and graduate studies.[21]

Remove ads

Career

Summarize
Perspective

Investment banking

After starting his career as a data scientist at IBM,[1] Baier-Lentz joined Goldman Sachs as an investment banker, and founded and led the firm's global gaming practice.[22] During his tenure as vice president, he advised gaming and technology corporations on over $300 billion in transaction volume across mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, venture capital, and other strategic transactions, including Dell's $67 billion acquisition of EMC and IBM's $34 billion purchase of Red Hat.[12]

Venture capital

BITKRAFT Ventures

Baier-Lentz went on to become a partner and management team member at BITKRAFT Ventures,[23] where he scaled the firm to approximately $850 million in assets under management and to become the most active gaming lead investor in 2020, 2021, and 2022[12] before joining Lightspeed.

Lightspeed Venture Partners

After setting up Lightspeed's gaming and interactive media practice in early 2023, Baier-Lentz elevated the firm to become the largest set of funds with a dedicated sector focus (investing from over $6.5 billion of early- and growth-stage capital).[24]

Gaming industry

CEO Forum and Lightspeed Advisory Council

Thumb
Thumb
Thumb
Thumb
Baier-Lentz hosting the 5th Annual CEO Forum at GDC in 2025, including CEOs of Blizzard, Discord, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Microsoft Xbox, Riot Games, Roblox, Take-Two, Unity, and Zynga.

Baier-Lentz hosts the annual CEO Forum at the Game Developers Conference with Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, and Sony—an "off-the-record gathering for the CEOs of the world's largest gaming and interactive media companies."

Attendees of the 2024 and 2025 conferences have included:

Some of these executives are also members of Lightspeed's Advisory Council, which further includes Michael Eisner (former CEO of The Walt Disney Company), Dara Khosrowshahi (CEO of Uber), Bernard Kim (former CEO of Match Group), and Danny Lange (SVP of Artificial Intelligence at Google).[27]

Game Theory

In June 2025, Baier-Lentz launched the video podcast series Game Theory: How Play Is Changing Everything in partnership with Goldman Sachs and McKinsey, featuring commentary from founders, CEOs, and presidents in the gaming industry on how the concept of play has historically shaped consumer behavior and catalyzed technological innovation.

Episode overview

More information Episode, Guest ...

Game Changers

In partnership with Nasdaq, GamesBeat, and executive judges from the gaming and media industry,[29] Baier-Lentz founded Game Changers, a yearly initiative to highlight 25 startups across gaming, interactive media, and artificial intelligence.[30]

World Economic Forum

In his role as Young Global Leader and Davos delegate, Baier-Lentz advises the World Economic Forum on gaming, extended reality, governance aspects of artificial intelligence, and the convergence of frontier technologies. [31]

Forbes

After originally making the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Finance category 2016,[32] Baier-Lentz served as a judge for the Games category in 2024.[33]

Speaking engagements

Thumb
Baier-Lentz in 2024 at the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Baier-Lentz has been featured as a speaker at the World Economic Forum,[31] Goldman Sachs,[34] Google,[35] Nvidia GTC, Stanford University,[36] Harvard University,[37] Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[38] Axios,[39] South by Southwest,[40] Slush,[41] and the Game Developers Conference.[42]

Remove ads

Personal life

Thumb
Baier-Lentz and wife Alissa at the Berghotel Schatzalp in 2024.

Baier-Lentz is an Ironman and ultramarathon runner, including the 251-kilometer long, self-sufficient Marathon des Sables[43] and the World Marathon Challenge (7 marathons on 7 continents within 7 days).[44][45][46]

Thumb
Baier-Lentz during the World Marathon Challenge 2023.

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads
Remove ads