Fnatic

Fnatic is a UK-based esports organization with facilities in London, Berlin, Los Angeles, Shenzhen, and Kuala Lumpur. The team competes in six esports titles including League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Dota 2, Rainbow Six, Fortnite, PUBG, and FIFA. Fnatic has a team of 40 professional gamers across eight game titles and has more than 100 employees in six offices worldwide. In November 2022, it launched a music label (Fnatic Music) in an attempt to diversify beyond esports, followed by the introduction of a fan membership program in collaboration with Crypto.com (March 2022) to offer fans an array of rewards and features.

Fnatic had accumulated USD 16.2 million in prize money as of July 2021 with Counter-Strike and League of Legends accounting for a combined 55% of that total. As of November 2019, Forbes has estimated the team’s revenue and valuation to be USD 16 million and USD 175 million, respectively. 

Key customers and partnerships

Fnatic entered the Middle Eastern market in December 2020 through a partnership with online multi-brand retailer Xcite, one of the largest electronics retailers in Kuwait with a collection of over 300 global brands. The company’s products are expected to be available in over 50 showrooms across Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in 2021. Fnatic’s other partnerships include endemic brands such as AMD and PCSpecialist as well as non-endemic sponsors such as Monster and BMW.

Funding and financials

In November 2022, Fnatic secured a strategic partnership with Hivemind Capital, a crypto asset management company. Through the deal, the company is expecting to use Hivemind’s expertise to develop its own Web3 applications and scale digital economies. In May 2021, Fnatic announced that it raised GBP 12 million (approximately USD 17 million) in a funding round led by Marubeni Corporation (a Japanese conglomerate). The round includes participation from Bootstrap and other investors. The round follows its GBP 2 million (USD 2.6 million) in crowdfunding in December 2020. The fresh financing will be funneled toward expanding into the Japanese and Asia-Pacific esports markets. Furthermore, as a result of the strategic partnership between the two firms, Fnatic will relocate its Rainbow Six: Siege team to Japan. Fnatic also reported that it has achieved 80% YoY overall revenue growth, while its digital and physical performance products reached 91% YoY revenue growth in Q1 2021.