- Source: Moritz Baier-Lentz
Moritz Baier-Lentz is a German-American venture capitalist. He is a partner and the head of gaming at Lightspeed Venture Partners, leading the firm's investments in game studios, platforms, and technologies. Previously, Baier-Lentz was a vice president in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs, where he founded and led the firm's global gaming practice. A former #1 ranked competitive player of Diablo II, he has invested over $100 million into entrepreneurs who have been leading the creation of video games like Fortnite, Call of Duty, League of Legends, Halo, Destiny, Overwatch, Valorant, Apex Legends, Sky, StarCraft II, and Warcraft III.
Awards and professional memberships
In 2016 and 2017, Baier-Lentz was regarded by Forbes (United States) and Capital (Germany) as one of the most influential finance professionals in their 30 Under 30 and 40 Under 40 lists, respectively. In 2017, he joined the German-American Atlantik-Brücke and in 2023, he was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and invited to participate as a delegate in the 54th Annual Meeting in Davos. Baier-Lentz holds an MBA and M.A. from Stanford University, and graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Early life and education
Baier-Lentz grew up as a first-generation high school graduate in rural Germany 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. He used a combination of proceeds from virtual goods sales and German national academic merit scholarships from Studienstiftung and DAAD to help finance his undergraduate and graduate studies.
Career
= Investment banking
=After starting his career as a data scientist at IBM, Baier-Lentz joined Goldman Sachs as an investment banker, and founded and led the firm's global gaming practice. 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.
= Venture capital
=Baier-Lentz went on to become a partner and management team member at BITKRAFT Ventures, where he invested during the firm's time as the most active gaming venture capital firm and lead investor in 2020, 2021, and 2022 before joining Lightspeed in 2023.
= Speaking engagements
=Baier-Lentz has been featured as a speaker at the World Economic Forum, Goldman Sachs, Stanford University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Axios, South by Southwest, Slush, and the Game Developers Conference.
Personal life
Baier-Lentz is an Ironman and ultramarathon runner, including the 251-kilometer long, self-sufficient Marathon des Sables and the World Marathon Challenge (7 marathons on 7 continents within 7 days).