Bessemer Venture Partners helps entrepreneurs lay strong foundations to build and forge long-standing companies. Their portfolio includes pinterest, shopify, twilio, yelp, linkedin, pagerduty, docusign, wix, fiverr, and toast, and has $19 billion of assets under management.

Bessemer Venture Partners

Hetz Ventures is a venture capital firm focusing on Israeli start-ups. The firm consists of a team of investment professionals, backed by some of Europe's connected investors. Hetz Ventures was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Hetz Ventures

Overwolf is the guild for in-game creators. With over 1,500 games supported, 165,000 creators, and 35 million monthly active users, Overwolf is the all-in-one platform that enables creators to build, distribute, and monetize in-game apps, mods, and private servers. Built for creators by creators, Overwolf is on a mission to unite the in-game creator community and empower them to make a living doing what they love - developing truly awesome gaming experiences. In 2022, Overwolf paid over $160 million to in-game creators. Based in Tel Aviv, Overwolf has raised over $150 million to date from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Griffin Gaming Partners, Insight Partners, and others.

Overwolf

Samsung NEXT Ventures is an investment arm of Samsung NEXT, a multifaceted innovation group within Samsung Electronics dedicated to identifying new growth opportunities that will define the next decade. The firm prefers to invest in artificial intelligence, fintech, blockchain, health technology, infrastructure, and media technology sectors.

Samsung NEXT

Gankster

Gankster operates as a competitive gaming platform.

Gankster allows players to form teams, compete, track match data across titles such as League of Legends, VALORANT, Rocket League, and Dota 2. The platform includes a reputation system that aims to address toxicity and inclusivity in gaming. The platform had more than 20,000 registered teams as of December 2022 and plans to monetize from Q1 2023.

A foundational component to the next generation of digital entertainment.

Esports

Rezonate, Gankster and Axiom all Make Small Raises

Gankster allows players to form teams, compete, track match data across titles such as League of Legends, VALORANT, Rocket League, and Dota 2. The platform includes a reputation system that aims to address toxicity and inclusivity in gaming. The platform had more than 20,000 registered teams as of December 2022 and plans to monetize from Q1 2023.Gankster raised USD 4.3 million in a seed funding round co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Hetz Ventures. The funds will be used for hiring, expanding into additional games, funding competitions, supporting grassroots, and online gaming communities.

Stakester is a platform for gamers to compete against one another for cash prizes. The platform was launched in May 2020 and is currently available in 38 US states, the UK, and Singapore. As of November 2020, the platform has more than 15,000 users. Stakester has also established partnerships with ESL (Electronic Sports League) and GameByte (competitive gaming community).Stakester’s management includes Gary J. Foreman (co-founder of Rockstar Games) and Alan Patmore (former EVP and GM at Humble Bundle, GM of Mafia Wars and CityVille at Zynga), who joined as a strategic advisor and board member in June 2020.In November 2020, the company raised USD 2.7 million in seed funding led by RTP Global with participation from angel investors Jens Lapinski (CEO of Angel Invest and former MD of Techstars) and Chris Adelsbach (founding partner at Outrun Ventures and venture partner at Techstars). The funds will be used to grow its community by increasing the value of prizes on the platform. In addition, the company plans to expand its platform to Australia and Germany in the near future.

Stakester

Peru-based ESGPlay operates an esports platform that creates competitive esports tournaments.

ESGPlay

eMasters is a Brazilian esports platform that facilitates the creation of esports competitions with cash prizes. The platform supports games including League of Legends, Dota 2, and FIFA 19.

eMasters

Gaming Frog is a console based online esports tournament platform. The platform offers single player and multiplayer competitive matchups for cash prizes in FIFA.The platform officially launched in August 2019 and since has seen over 1,500 matches being played on the platform.Since launch, the platform claims to have attracted 3,500 users. The company has raised USD 150,000 from friends and family and is in the process of raising a USD 400,000 seed round. The company outlined plans to launch on Android, expand its development team, integrate artificial intelligence (AI), introduce a membership model and bring in NBA and Madden games into the platform.

Gaming Frog

NAG Studios is a Swedish startup focused on creating esports games and platforms. It was founded by esports and gaming industry veterans Peter Stahl (former head of development at Resolution Games, a game studio focused on augmented and virtual reality) and Johan Skott (former esports product owner at Tobii Tech, a unit of technology company Tobii AB). NAG’s vision entails building an esports game and platform which will incorporate the community (i.e., professional players, streamers, broadcasters, and viewers) from the beginning of the development process.The company raised USD 1 million in an extended pre-seed funding round led by London Venture Partners in October 2020. The company aims to use the funds to build its development team.

NAG Studios

Companies facilitating communication among esports players or between players and esports communities during gameplay.

Companies operating esports arenas and providing technical expertise for hosting and broadcasting competitive leagues and tournaments. 

Companies facilitating competitive online and in-person esports tournaments.

Companies producing and broadcasting esports related content.

Companies recruiting players to form professional teams and rosters for esports tournaments and leagues.

Companies developing esports related titles.

Commonly used in the tournament platforms segment to match players of equal skill

Gankster

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