MB

Moritz Baier-Lentz

Partner at Lightspeed ⚡ | YGL & Davos Delegate at World Economic Forum 🌍 | xGoldman xStanford xHarvard 🎓 | 30U30, 40U40 🎯 | Former #1 Diablo II Player 🕹️ | World Marathon Challenge Finisher 🎽 | First-Gen College 🎒

Los Angeles Metropolitan Area

Work Experience

  • Partner

    2022

    Leading Lightspeed's gaming & interactive media practice. We support extraordinary founders with deep domain expertise, $29 billion in assets, a global platform, and a culture that puts them first—from first check to IPO, with ~200 exits to date.

  • Lead Investor and Board Director, Volley

    2022

    Highest-grossing AI-powered game company, building voice-enabled experiences for Amazon Alexa, Fire TVs, Roku TVs, and mobile devices—leveraging voice recognition, LLM content, and speech synthesis.

  • Lead Investor & Board Director, k-ID

    2024

    The leading cross-platform, instant sign-on solution for kids and teens. An all-in-one answer for solving the complex global issues of privacy and online safety, integrated with many of the largest publishers worldwide.

  • Lead Investor & Board Director, 1047 Games

    2022

    Started in a Stanford dorm, this 150+ team is building Splitgate 2, a flagship FPS title launching in 2025—the original Splitgate scored over 15 million downloads. (Lightspeed investment before joining the firm.)

  • Lead Investor & Board Director, Inworld AI

    2023

    The leading AI-native game engine, built by world-class AI experts from Google and DeepMind who pioneered generative AI; live integrations with Unity, Unreal, Roblox, Minecraft, and 100+ AAA/AA projects.

  • Lead Investor & Board Director, Gardens Interactive

    2023

    4x "Game of the Year" designers (Sky, Journey) crafting a game inspired by their favorite experiences playing MMOs and fantasy ARPGs over the years—particularly moments shared with strangers.

  • Lead Investor & Board Director, The Believer Company

    2022

    Former Executive Producers of League of Legends and Wild Rift—games that collectively grossed well over $10 billion to date. Now, the duo is on a mission to bring previously impossible player dreams to life.

  • Lead Investor & Board Director, Methodical Games

    2022

    Industry veterans from Epic Games, Respawn Entertainment, and Infinity Ward lleveraging their experience creating Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty. (Lightspeed investment before joining the firm.)

  • Delegate, Annual Meeting

    2023

    Invited to participate in the 54th Annual Meeting under the theme "Rebuilding Trust" alongside leaders from over 100 governments and CEOs of the world's most impactful companies.

  • Advisor, AI Governance Alliance

    2024

    Committed to fostering inclusive, ethical, and sustainable AI, my personal focus within the broader initiative is on generative AI applications in gaming and interactive media.

  • Advisor & Founding Member, Frontier Technologies Working Group

    2024

    Accelerating the impact of cutting-edge development to contribute to solving humanity’s greatest challenges, including AI, quantum comptuing, computer vision, and advanced materials & manufacturing.

  • Advisor & Founding Member, Metaverse Initiative

    2021

    Building an equitable, interoperable, and safe Metaverse; together with key constituents of the global technology and media ecosystem; and writing about gaming, interactive media, and extended reality (AR/VR).

  • Young Global Leader & Los Angeles Local Chair

    2023

    Working with civic and business leaders, technologists, educators, activists, and journalists from 120 countries to tackle challenges of global public interest. (Nomination by David M. Rubenstein.)

2016

  • 30 Under 30 Judge, Gaming

    2023

    Combing through thousands of online submissions and recommendations from industry sources and Forbes alumni to select the definitive list of young people changing the world of gaming.

  • 30 Under 30 Honoree, Finance

    2016

    Met my wife, some of my best friends, and amazing communities in New York and Los Angeles. Originally made the list for my work at the intersection of Wall Street and Silicon Valley while at Goldman Sachs.

2020 - 2023

  • Partner & Management Team

    2020 - 2023

    Scaled the firm to $850 million in assets under management and built the most impactful gaming VC and lead investor of 2020, 2021, and 2022.

  • Lead Investor & Board Director, Inworld AI

    2022 - 2022

    The leading character engine for AI NPCs, built by world-class AI experts from Google and DeepMind who pioneered generative AI; live integrations with Unity, Unreal, Roblox, Minecraft, and 100+ AAA/AA projects.

  • Lead Investor & Board Director, Lightforge Games

    2022 - 2022

    Game studio by former Epic Games and Blizzard veterans (Fortnite, World of Warcraft, Diablo III, etc.) combining creative elements of UGC games with the open-ended storytelling of tabletop RPGs.

  • Lead Investor & Board Director, TRIPP

    2022 - 2022

    Leading meditation platform for extended reality, pioneering immersive technologies that facilitate mental well-being and personal transformation. Available on major VR, AR, and mobile devices.

  • Lead Investor & Board Observer, Horizon Blockchain Games

    2021 - 2022

    Web3 trailblazers with major contributions to the Ethereum and NFT ecosystem (e.g., ERC-1155 and ERC-1271) and creators of play-to-earn game Skyweaver and smart wallet Sequence.

  • Lead Investor & Board Observer, OpenBCI

    2021 - 2022

    Neurotechnologists who built the first non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) "Galea" to measure brain, muscle, eye, skin, and heart data; developed with Varjo and M.I.T. for gaming and beyond.

  • Investor, Raid Base

    2021 - 2022

    Game studio by the co-founders of Valorant (Riot Games) and experts from Valve, Microsoft, and Bungie; crafting an open-world, sandbox PvPvE experience with an original IP.

  • Lead Investor & Board Director, Arcturus

    2020 - 2022

    Software company by former Netflix, Google, YouTube, Pixar, DreamWorks, and Uber executives, building the leading platform for volumetric video capture, processing, and live distribution.

  • Investor, Theorycraft Games

    2020 - 2022

    Game studio by former C-level executives of League of Legends (Riot Games), Halo & Destiny (Bungie), and Overwatch (Activision Blizzard) on a mission to create deep '10,000-hour games'.

  • Investor, Epic Games

    2020 - 2022

    Creators of Fortnite, Rocket League (formerly Psyonix), and Unreal Engine—the creative platform for today's most immersive virtual worlds. (Part of the investment team.)

  • Investor, Frost Giant Studios

    2020 - 2022

    Former executives of StarCraft II and Warcraft III assembling a Blizzard all-star team to build the next great PC real-time strategy (RTS) game. (Part of the investment team.)

2014 - 2019

  • Founder & Global Head of Gaming Practice

    2016 - 2019

    Started the firm's global gaming practice (#1 in gaming M&A since) and worked closely with the world’s leading gaming and interactive media companies, including Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two.

  • Vice President, Technology Investment Banking

    2014 - 2019

    Advised on over $300 billion deal volume across M&A and IPOs (incl. Dell's $67 billion acquisition of EMC and IBM's $34 billion purchase of Red Hat). Covered enterprise IT and deep tech (incl. SpaceX and Palantir).

  • Investor, Growth-Stage Venture Capital

    2014 - 2019

    As part of TMT's direct placements, invested in early growth-stage rounds in Palantir (2017; IPO at NYSE:PLTR in 2020) and SpaceX (2017 & 2018).

  • Guest Lecturer, Gaming

    2018 - 2018

    Assisted in the preparation and teaching of a gaming and esports module for the inaugural program "Building Sports Businesses" at Harvard Business School.

  • Council Member & Speaker, German American Conference at Harvard

    2016 - 2018

    Helped bring together American and German leaders from business, politics, and academia for the largest student-led conference on transatlantic relations in the United States.

2014 - 2015

  • Advisor to the U.S. Digital Service

    2014 - 2015

    Advanced the cooperation among government agencies, technology corporations, and research universities with a focus on talent exchange between the White House and Silicon Valley.

2014 - 2015

  • Voting Member of the Board of Trustees

    2014 - 2015

    As a graduate representative and member of the Globalization Committee, helped guide the policies for operation and control of the university.

2014 - 2014

  • Strategy Consultant

    2014 - 2014

    Worked with C-level management of a publicly listed company on a project at the interface of business strategy and technology (MBA internship, received full-time offer).

  • Data Scientist & Engagement Manager

    2006 - 2013

    Advised IBM's CEO, CFO, and country general managers as part of an internal unit that pioneered data science and artificial intelligence (IBM Watson).