Founding Partner
Ben has a unique operating track record managing top franchises through tech, gaming and economic cycles. Past positions include President of International Partnership at Tencent, CEO of Take-Two Interactive and Founding Partner and Vice Chairman of Zelnick Media Capital.
Board Positions:
Epic Games, Bad Robot Games, Glu Mobile. Robot Entertainment, Hi-Rez Studios, Dots, Columbia Music Entertainment.
Founding Partner
Justin Yuan is a Partner and founding member of TIRTA Ventures, based in New York.
Justin brings over a decade of investing experience across private and public markets. Prior to TIRTA, he led Tencent's North America games investment team. Earlier in his career, he was a public equity investor at Citadel focusing on global internet and interactive entertainment, and a private equity investor at Fortress Investment Group. He began his career in investment banking at Citigroup in Hong Kong.
A lifelong gamer, Justin was a modder for real-time-strategy games including StarCraft: Brood War and Age of Empires II. He holds a BS in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Investor
Keizac (Kei) Lee is an investor at TIRTA Ventures, based in Hong Kong and New York.
Kei brings over a decade of experience across venture capital, project finance, and video game publishing. Prior to TIRTA, he led emerging markets investments at Tencent Games and served a Partner at Kowloon Nights, a project finance fund focused on indie game developers. He began his career in investment banking at BNP Paribas in Hong Kong.
Kei holds a MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from the University of Toronto.
Principal
Tyler Matses is Principal at TIRTA Ventures.
Tyler brings a diverse background encompassing venture capital, M&A, and operational roles at startups. He started his career at Blackstone's Tactical Opportunities Group and Raymond James's Investment Banking Division, covering biotechnology.
A lifelong gamer, Tyler grew up playing Counter-Strike 1.6 competitively and remains a dedicated FPS and MMORPG player to this day.
Investor Relations Manager
Sydney Levin-Epstein is the Investor Relations Manager at TIRTA Ventures, based in New York.
Sydney brings over a decade of experience in fundraising, relationship management, and capital strategy. She began her career in electoral politics, working in Congress, on campaigns, and as a candidate for State Senate herself. Prior to TIRTA, she held senior roles in political fundraising, raising over $117M for Senator Jon Ossoff's Georgia runoff, averaging $1M per day for Senator Raphael Warnock, and helping Senator Ed Markey make history as the first candidate to outraise a Kennedy in Massachusetts.
At TIRTA, Sydney works across LP relations and the firm's broader network in the Interactive AI and gaming space. She is passionate about how the power of capital scales ideas that reshape how people connect, learn, and play.
Seth is a seasoned game developer and product leader with deep experience across engineering, design, and production. He was most recently VP of Development on World of Warcraft at Blizzard Entertainment. Prior to that, he was co-founder and CEO of Proletariat Inc., the studio behind Spellbreak, which was acquired by Activision Blizzard in 2022.
Doug brings nearly three decades of experience across media as an operator, strategist, advisor, and analyst. He currently serves as a senior advisor at BCG and writes The Mediator, a media newsletter. Doug was previously CFO of Pugilist Capital and held senior leadership roles at WarnerMedia and Time Warner, following an award-winning run as a media equity analyst.
Jonathan has over three decades of experience at the intersection of media, finance, and academia. He is a senior advisor at Evercore and the Michael T. Fries Professor of Media and Technology at Columbia Business School. Previously, he was co-head of the media group at Morgan Stanley and held senior roles at Goldman Sachs.
