North American esports organisation Cloud9 has brought in $50 million (£38 million) in Series B funding, according to Forbes.
Antonio Gracias, Founder and Managing Partner of Valor Equity Partners – the company that led the round of funding – has joined the organisation’s board.
It’s reported that other investors from the round include TrueBridge Capital Partners, Reimagined Ventures, and Robert Hohman, CEO of Glassdoor. It’s said that Jack Etienne, Founder and CEO of Cloud9 is looking to build out the organisation’s team, which currently operates with 35 members of staff.
It was only in October last year that Cloud9 had raised $25M in Series A funding from the likes of WWE, the Beverly Hills Sports Council, Raul Fernandez (of Monumental Sports & Entertainment), Michael Ovitz (of Creative Artists Agency), Founders Fund, and David Sacks & Bill Lee.
The organisation competes in a number of esports titles, notably League of Legends, Overwatch, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds, Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege, Hearthstone, Fortnite, H1Z1, Clash Royale, and Super Smash Bros. Melee. Cloud9 is partnered with Red Bull, the U.S. Air Force, OMEN by HP, Twitch, HTC, HyperX, MSI, and LoLwiz.
Esports Insider says: Cloud9 is having quite the year. From succeeding in top games such as Overwatch, CS:GO, Rainbow Six Siege, and League of Legends to securing funding as sizable as this reported amount. There’s no doubt that Jack Etienne will put the funds to good use, but we just hope his ambitions don’t get the best of him and we see a repeat of what’s happened recently at Echo Fox and Infinite Esports and Entertainment.