New York Angels is one of the largest and most active angel investment organizations.  Founded in 2004 as the successor organization to the NYNMA (New York New Media Association) Angel Investor Program, New York Angels is a membership organization of over 110 active angel investors and early stage venture capital funds. The group meets monthly to screen and present early stage technology companies, and its members have invested over $100 million since 2002 into over 90 ventures. In April of 2017, PItchbook identified New York Angels as #3 in their list of the 8 top VCs funding seed rounds of New York-based companies.  Among the NYA membership are nationally known angel investors including Esther Dyson and David S. Rose. The group has one full-time staff, reporting to an 11 person Board of Directors chaired by Brian S. Cohen. Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey is currently Program Director of New York Angels. Since 2012, the membership has increased by 66% and investment activity has grown by over 215%.   New York Angels concentrates on early stage investments in the range of $100,000 - $1,000,000, although it has led deals as large as $2 million. It receives over 2,200 financing applications annually, from which it selects 12-16 companies each month for an in-person screening, where all members of New York Angels are invited to attend. The group meets again for an Investment Breakfast at the end of the month, where 2-4 opportunities present to the membership with a goal to close their current investment round within two months. The group is considered a leader in the growing field of organized angel investing. It was the first member of the national Angel Capital Association, hosted the ACA Summit conference in 2006, and was the initial test group for the now-standard gust (Angelsoft) funding platform.  Membership as an investor in New York Angels is by invitation only, and members are required to commit to investing at least $50,000 annually in early stage technology deals, in addition to the group's $3,500 annual membership dues.  Requests for funding for entrepreneurial ventures may be self-submitted through the group's website. New York Angels charges no fees to entrepreneurs.

New York Angels

ConsenSys is an Ethereum software web3 company. ConsenSys enables developers, enterprises, and people worldwide to build next-generation applications, launch modern financial infrastructure, and access the decentralized web. ConsenSys' product suite, composed of Infura, Quorum, Truffle, Codefi, MetaMask, and Diligence, serves millions of users, supports billions of blockchain-based queries for its clients, and has handled billions of dollars in digital assets. Ethereum is a programmable blockchain in the world, business adoption, developer community, and DeFi activity. On this trusted, open-source foundation, ConsenSys is building the digital economy of tomorrow.

ConsenSys

Founded in 2015 by Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, MESH has four core components: investment, incubation, research & development, and acceleration. We identify bold founders and innovative technologies that can help bring the future of Web 3.0 into high definition. We channel ambitions, accelerate the path to breakthroughs, and create value.  Now investing through TachyonX.

ConsenSys Mesh

CoinFund is a private cryptoasset investor and blockchain research and advisory firm that focuses on crypto and blockchain investments. The firm was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Brooklyn, United States.

CoinFund

Animoca Brands is a metaverse and gaming venture capital firm that focuses on driving digital property rights to gamers and internet users through NFTs. It utilizes gamification and blockchain to develop and market a portfolio of mobile applications, games, and additional products oriented to educational learning to ensure transparency, security, and new business models.

Animoca Brands

Multicoin Capital is a thesis-driven cryptofund that invests long term in tokens that reshape entire sectors of the global economy. It is on a mission to accelerate the transition from the centralized institutions of the industrial age to the decentralized institution of the internet age. By accelerating the transition from permissioned to permissionless financial systems, Multicoin aims to accelerate humanity’s ability to achieve its full potential. Multicoin Capital was established in 2017 and is based in Austin, Texas.

Multicoin Capital

# Hashed: To empower networks and innovators in building the decentralized future. Hashed, based in San Francisco and Seoul, is the largest crypto assets fund and community builder in South Korea. The team was founded by serial entrepreneurs, company operators, and systems engineers, who are passionate about enabling the global adoption of blockchain through education, acceleration and impact investments. Hashed operates Hashed Lounge--a premier blockchain meetup group; Hashed Post--a cryptocurrency blog interviewing founders and thought leaders; and Hashed Night--a world-class conference, events, and networking brand.  The team is actively working towards a definition of what it means to be a fundamental technology and founder-focused investment startup in the blockchain ecosystem.

Hashed

1kx is a crypto investment firm that specializes in ecosystem growth.

At WhaleShark we excel in Growth stage Statups & Scaleups deal sourcing from all across Europe. Whale Shark mentor selected entrepreneurs and get them investment ready. We carry out scouting for investors (venture capitalists, private equity and corporate investors) and match with proprietary deal flows.

WhaleShark

Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot, uses blockchain technology to bring NFTs and new forms of digital engagement to fans around the world. Since it was founded in 2018, Dapper Labs has given consumer enthusiasts a real stake in the game by bringing them closer to the brands they love, building engaged and exciting communities for them to contribute to, and producing new pathways for them to become creators themselves.

Dapper Labs

Thirty Five Ventures is a startup founded by basketball star Kevin Durant that invests in tech companies.

Thirty Five Ventures

Play Ventures is a venture funding that invests globally in games and game services startups.

Play Ventures

Established in 2017, Gen.G is the leading esports organization connecting the U.S. and Asia. Ranked #6 in the 2019 Forbes list of the world’s most valuable esports companies, Gen.G is the only major organization that owns and operates top teams in the world’s leading esports markets -- China, South Korea, and the United States. Its unique portfolio of teams, winners of 7 global championships to date, includes the Seoul Dynasty franchise of the Overwatch League; 2014 & 2017 League of Legends world champion teams in South Korea; the world’s top all-female Fortnite team, based in Los Angeles; and the NBA 2K League’s historic expansion franchise in Shanghai.  Gen.G’s core mission is to help fans and athletes use the power of gaming and esports to get ahead in and beyond competition. The company has quickly become a commercial and thought leader, building a global, inclusive, and cross-cultural future for sports entertainment. Its widely acclaimed initiatives include: #TeamBumble, the leading team platform for the empowerment of women in gaming; and Gen.G Elite Esports Academy, the world’s first fully-integrated academic esports program. Gen.G’s teams, content creators, and corporate staff work out of their offices in Los Angeles, Seoul, and Shanghai.

Gen.G Esports

Workplay Ventures

Warburg Serres Investments is a private equity group investing in blockchain infrastructure projects and Web3 applications.

Warburg Serres Investments

Signum Growth Capital is a registered broker dealer member of FINRA, headquartered in Brooklyn with an extended presence in San Francisco. The firm provides M&A advisory services and engages in the private placement of company securities. Focused on mass market applications underpinned by Bitcoin & other blockchain protocols, video gaming, tokenized digital art, and social networks, Signum Growth Capital strives to be at the forefront of the emerging technologies and digital economies in the metaverse.

Signum Growth Capital

Open Opportunity Fund is a $100 million venture fund that supports Black, Latinx, and Native American founders. The firm is operated by SoftBank Group Corporation. It was established in 2020 and is based in Miami, FL, United States.

Open Opportunity Fund

BITKRAFT Ventures was founded in 2015 by german serial entrepreneur, Jens Hilgers. BITKRAFT’s team is located in Berlin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, Madrid and Lisbon covering videogames and esports investments not only digitally but in the most relevant and busy metropoles for digital entertainment in the Western world.

BITKRAFT Ventures

Visary Capital is an early stage fund investing in teams building infrastructure, protocols, and applications for the next generation digital economy. Investment areas include crypto assets, distributed systems, financial services, data analytics, machine learning, healthcare, media, remote work, and more. Partnering closely with companies and open-source communities enabling freedom, inclusiveness, education, and major societal efficiencies through technology.

Visary Capital

Griffin Gaming Partners is a venture capital firm that focuses on investing across the broad gaming ecosystem.

Griffin Gaming Partners

Shima Capital is an investment fund that focuses on supporting blockchain startups. The firm is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States.

Shima Capital

Diverse Angels is an angel group for current & aspiring investors from underrepresented and diverse backgrounds (People of Color, Women, LGBTQ+) to come together and share access to opportunities for ownership in early-stage tech companies. The mission to increase representation of diverse investors as a means to address the systemic wealth gaps, notably the racial wealth gap in the US. With a focus on bridging wealth gaps & disparities, Diverse Angels is a B-Corporation that is supported 100% by volunteers and charges no fees to the community though its 0/00 model.  This innovative 0/00 model (0% management fees are charged and 0% of carried interest - i.e. profit) was put into place to remove barriers and costs that could prevent diverse angels (especially first-timers) from participating in deals. The 0/00 model also ensures that the angels’ maximum amount of capital is deployed to allow for the maximum amount of upside. In search of the best founders, Diverse Angels leverages the size, strength, and diversity of its member base to maintain high standards of investment rigor. There are intentional efforts to source & meet founders from all backgrounds and it is a priority that the majority of Diverse Angels’ investments are made into Diverse Founders (People of Color, Women, LGBTQ+).

Diverse Angels

Binance Labs identifies, invests, and empowers viable blockchain entrepreneurs, startups, and communities, providing financing to industry projects that help grow the larger blockchain ecosystem.

Binance Labs

Polygon Studios is a blockchain app development company.

Polygon Studios

Crowd Venture Capital is committed to funding unique ideas and excellent teams around the world, with an emphasis on the Metaverse, NFT, and Web3. We invest in high-growth technology companies that solve key challenges in broad markets and assist entrepreneurs by using our global network of experts, operators, executives, and potential customers. When we see compelling Web2 and Web3 potential, we invest in both equity and digital assets. We enjoy what we do and are inspired and motivated by the people and organizations we support.

Crowd Venture Capital

Beacon is an accelerator created by web3 founders. Beacon provides web3 startups with the resources they require to succeed. They provide funding, mentorship, and curated resources for web3 startups.

Beacon

Community Gaming

AAG Ventures is the IT business behind AAG, one of the fastest-growing Play-To-Earn guilds in the industry.

Community Gaming is the all-in-one esports competition platform, offering cutting edge infrastructure to key industry stakeholders. Through its seamless UX, plus highly scalable and efficient blockchain payment technology, the platform equips players, guilds, competition organizers, and game developers with the tools they need to create, facilitate, and participate in esports tournaments. Community Gaming believes in Earnings for Everyone, where the massive gains of the wider esports and gaming industry are decentralized and accessible via web3 technology to reward action and time.

<div>Community Gaming operates an esports tournament platform that manages brackets once the organizer decides the format, rules, and payout methods. It uses blockchain technology to distribute player rewards and can create digital crypto wallets to facilitate the movement of cash in and out of player accounts. As of July 2021, the company has hosted more than 200 local events and over 300 esports tournaments and it is running 15 USD 1,000 tournaments each month. The company generates revenue via sponsorships from Facebook and partnering blockchain companies (e.g Horizon Blockchain Games, Polygon, Consensys).</div>

A foundational component to the next generation of digital entertainment.

Esports

Community Gaming Integrates with World ID To Verify Esports Tournament Players

AAG Ventures

Tribe Capital

Tess Ventures

Slayton Capital

Republic

GDP Venture

Kosmos Ventures

Oyster Ventures

Fomocraft Ventures

Genblock Capital

Portico Ventures

HashKey Capital

Everest Ventures Group

Sanctor Capital

Sipher

ViaBTC Capital

Synergis Capital

Muse Builder

YellowBlocks

Vulcan Forged

Cukies

Immortal Game

DOUBLETOP

Riot Games

Esports tournament platform Community Gaming has partnered with game publisher Riot Games to produce the VALORANT Elite Showdown. In total 32 teams from the open qualifiers will advance to the main event. These teams will compete against 32 invited teams which include Andbox, T1, NRG, Immortals, Complexity, Renegades and C9 White.

Companies developing esports related titles.

<div>
 
 Community Gaming operates an esports tournament platform that manages brackets once the organizer decides the format, rules, and payout methods. It uses blockchain technology to distribute player rewards and can create digital crypto wallets to facilitate the movement of cash in and out of player accounts. As of July 2021, the company has hosted more than 200 local events and over 300 esports tournaments and it is running 15 USD 1,000 tournaments each month. The company generates revenue via sponsorships from Facebook and partnering blockchain companies (e.g Horizon Blockchain Games, Polygon, Consensys).
 
 
 Community Gaming has raised USD 16 million in a Series A funding round in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9652">
 April 2022
 </a>
 led by SoftBank Group (via its SB Opportunity Fund), with participation from Animoca Brands, Binance Labs, BITKRAFT Ventures, and Griffin Gaming Partners. The fresh funds will be utilized to expand its platform and introduce a new rewards system. The round followed its USD 2.3 million seed funding round in 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/3928">
 July 2021
 </a>
 .
 
 
 
</div>

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.

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

Community Gaming

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