CrossCut Ventures, which includes north American esports titan Immortals amongst the companies in its investment portfolio, has raised $125 million (£93.7m) for its fourth seed fund.
Alongside esports, the venture capital firm invests in gaming, artificial intelligence, software-as-a-service, and both virtual and augmented reality startups. The Los Angeles-based fund will continue to target startups, and comfortably exceeded its initial target of $100 million raised, hitting the cap of $125m.
CrossCut describes itself as the ‘company-building capital of LA’ and have a broad area of focus they describe as the ‘social tech ecosystem’.
An initial fundraising round in 2008 supplied the company with $5 million, and since then they haven’t looked back. The total investment from the company to date stands at $50 million (£37.5m), with its 70 startups going on to raise $1.3 billion in follow-on capital funding.
CrossCut now lists 41 active projects in its portfolio. The esports contingent features Immortals, content production platform Blitz Esports, and Boom.TV, a social entertainment platform for esports. In August they were also announced as an investor in Super Evil Megacorp, the developer behind popular mobile MOBA Vainglory. The game has become the leading mobile esport in the West.
CrossCut’s fourth funding round is large enough to more than double the company’s total funding raised thus far. In an interview with VentureBeat, company co-founder and Managing Director Brian Garrett revealed that each of the company’s four managing directors focuses on a separate area, utilising a “founder first” approach to building relationships, which he believes is indicative of the “Southern California tech ecosystem.” Garrett also commented that he credits their Los Angeles home for allowing the venture fund to stand out from obscurity.
“We believe that small VC investments make sense, and that standing apart from Silicon Valley has served us well,” he said. “We’ve played a small role in catalysing this region since 2008.”
Esports Insider says: CrossCut have been a key player in funding some notable names in esports and the wider tech industry. Here’s hoping that this latest round of funding helps further galvanise the esports ecosystem.