RFRSH Entertainment, have announced they have raised €7.2m (£6.38m) in new funding from various sources. RFRSH are known in esports for backing Scandinavian CS:GO teams like Astralis, Heroic and GODSENT.
The group is set to use the new capital to further their position as a ‘leading esports media house and live entertainment producer’. RFRSH have moved fast since forming in December 2016, seeing their leading brand Astralis win the ELEAGUE Major trophy in January. The new financial backing is set to allow the company to work on their other brands and “a unique series of media content and live events”, which are to be announced later on in the year.
WE DID IT!!!! Making history feels damn good. Thank you so much for all your amazing support. Atlanta, US, the world. ✨@EL #ELEAGUEMajor pic.twitter.com/ZjWP4ryuI4
— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) January 29, 2017
The investment comes from a range of sources, including previous Astralis investor Tommy Ahlers. The round also includes capital from the founder of Unity Technologies David Helgason, the founders of Supercell and VC firm Creandum. The Swedish based company is known for investing in many successful technology firms including Spotify and iZettle.
Nikolaj Nyholm, Founder and CEO of RFRSH said: “Since the launch RFRSH has been through a tremendous development. We have built an extremely competent and experienced organization with deep roots in esports, live entertainment and the pro sports industry, and we’re underway with a number of new concepts to be introduced over the last half of 2017. This will include the launch of a range of new unique content and media packages, game changing live events and a further strengthening of the organization around the CS:GO teams benefiting the teams, fans and the partners.”
Simon Schmincke, Partner of Creandum, stated: “We have no doubt that the RFRSH organization is in the perfect position to take esports live entertainment a step up, and we are confident that the platforms being developed by the team will become a major channel for endemic as well as non-endemic brands to reach a new and younger audience, who is no longer active via traditional media channels. We believe this is the chance to elevate esports content on the next level.”
Full press releases are available at RFRSH and Creandum.
Esports Insider says: Big news for the entertainment company as they move to become a larger power in the space. With this new extra funding the opportunities from RFRSH are set to grow in number very quickly, and we will keep a close eye on what they’re set to offer!