Town to City developer Galaxy Grove secures $1M investment to grow management game lineup
Utrecht, October 14th 2025, Galaxy Grove, a game development studio based in the Netherlands, has signed an equity investment deal of $1m with ForsVC and 1Up Ventures. With these funds, Galaxy Grove will be able to grow the team and get two new innovative management games into pre-production. This will grow the studio to four teams, all working on different games in the management games genre.
Galaxy Grove was founded in 2022 by award-winning game industry veteran Joost van Dongen, who was previously a co-founder of Ronimo Games, known for games like Awesomenauts, Swords & Soldiers, and De Blob. Galaxy Grove has quickly grown to its current team size of 17 people. With the new funds, the studio will expand to 21 people later this year and continue to grow in 2026.
Galaxy Grove released its first game, Station to Station, to great critical acclaim in 2023. Its second game Town to City recently released into Early Access and has quickly become a big hit on Steam, gathering over 2,000 reviews in just two weeks and sitting at an impressive 97% positive reviews.
“From the start, our goal was to become a household name in management games.”, says Joost van Dongen, CEO and Creative Director of the studio. “We want to create innovative, exciting games with beautiful graphics and a strong atmosphere. We’re incredibly proud that we already managed to get a real hit with our second game. With the additional funds, we will be able to expand to create multiple games simultaneously and achieve our goal of releasing an exciting new game every year. We have a roster of games planned where every game is different, and every game brings something truly innovative to the management games genre. It’s exciting to be able to execute on these plans with the support from ForsVC and 1Up Ventures!”
Eric Diepeveen, Venture Partner at ForsVC added: “We are impressed by what Joost and the team at Galaxy Grove have achieved. Town to City is an instant classic, a genre-defining title that showcases the talent and craftsmanship of the team.”
About the partners
Galaxy Grove
Galaxy Grove is a game studio in Utrecht, Netherlands, specialising in high quality 3D management and building games (entertainment games, not applied/serious games). Our games have a strong atmosphere, striking art and unique, intuitive gameplay. We are a growing team of currently 17 people. We’ve released our first game Station to Station in 2023 to great critical acclaim and are currently working on Town to City (available in Early Access on Steam) and several other unannounced new management games.
Galaxy Grove is founded and led by award-winning game industry veteran Joost van Dongen. Before founding Galaxy Grove, Joost van Dongen was co-founder and lead programmer of Ronimo Games, where he worked on Awesomenauts, Swords & Soldiers 1 and 2, Blightbound and De Blob. Joost was also the solo dev of Robo Maestro, Proun and Cello Fortress and recorded a cello album named The Ageless Gate.
The talented team at Galaxy Grove is a young and dynamic group. They are eager to help each other get better at their craft. The team has a lot of energy to create amazing games and to have fun while doing so.
ForsVC
ForsVC is a vibrant 18-million-euro fund based in Belgium, dedicated to catalysing the growth of Game Studios and Game Tech companies in Belgium and neighbouring countries. Founded by Howest, Cronos Group, and BNP Paribas Fortis, the fund is committed to nurturing innovation and fostering the gaming ecosystem in the region.
1Up Ventures
1Up Ventures is a venture fund focused on building a community of independent game developers. Founded by Ed Fries, former vice president of Microsoft Game Studios and a co-founder of Xbox, and Kelly Wallick, founder of the Indie MEGABOOTH and former IGF Chair. 1Up Ventures was established in 2019. The fund is based in Kirkland, Washington.