The CEO of Kabam, Kevin Chou, and his wife, Connie Chen, have made a record-setting donation to the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Berkeley said the pledge of up to $25 million is the largest to the school by an alum under the age of 40.
The donation will help build Connie and Kevin Chou Hall, slated to open later this year. The $60 million building will be funded by private donations and add 80,000 square feet of space to the business school. Chou is a trustee at his alma mater.
Haas said it has almost doubled enrollment in the last 20 years, and the new building will expand its classroom and study spaces for students. The school enrolls about 2,200 undergraduate and graduate students in its six degree programs.
The couple last week pledged $15 million to Haas, with an additional $5 million or $10 million to be paid in five years. Chou, 36, and Chen are both San Francisco entrepreneurs. In 2016, Chou sold Kabam assets to South Korea-based Netmarble Games Corp. for $800 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. Chen is a doctor and cofounder of Vida Health, a health startup providing health coaching for people.
Chou began his career at Deutsche Bank and Canaan Partners before cofounding Kabam with two other Berkeley alumni in 2006. Kabam employs about 700 in its San Francisco headquarter, with more than $400 million in annual revenue and raising about $245 million in funding.
Kabam has found success releasing games with movie and television-related content. The company has backed games like “Marvel: Contest of Champions” and “Star Wars: Uprising.” People interact with movies for two hours, but their gameplay comes out to hundreds of hours, Chou told the Business Times in November.
In 2013, Kabam signed a $18 million contract with UC Berkeley to get naming rights for the field at California Memorial Stadium, the outdoor football stadium on campus.