In May, a lot of unusual investment-related news came in. This month was not as full of big-money news as some preceeding months, but it definitely made up for it with other interesting stories.
Galaxy Racer became one of the first esports organisations to invest in a cryptocurrency company, and the Saudi Arabian government’s Public Investment Fund bought a 5% share in Nintendo. Generation Esports received a sizeable investment, and acquired the Military Gaming League, while Enthusiast Gaming had a public feud with one of its own investors.
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Spotlighted story
Dubai-based esports organisation Galaxy Racer has secured a partnership with cryptocurrency company QUINT.
The agreement sees Galaxy Racer invest $25m (~£19.78m) into QUINT’s cryptocurrency ecosystem. QUINT’s token will be integrated into the organisation’s structure, including its website’s payment system, within its tournaments and events, as well as through Galaxy Racer’s merchandising division.
The Saudi Arabian government’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has reportedly acquired a five percent stake in game developer and publisher Nintendo.
The $500bn (~£403bn) fund said it purchased the stake for ‘investment purposes’, according to a filing to Japan’s Finance Ministry reported by Bloomberg.
Generation Esports (GenE), the founder of the High School Esports League, has secured $19m (~£15.17m) from its Series B funding round.
In addition to the funding, the platform has acquired content creation platform Wizard Labs Inc. The funding was led by Altos Ventures, which also led the platform’s Series A funding round in May 2021.
Generation Esports, the founder of High School Esports League, has acquired US-military-focused esports league Military Gaming League (MGL).
Generation Esports will continue to operate online and in-person esports tournaments for the league, which provides tournaments for active service members and veterans of the US military.
Esports data company Bayes Esports has announced a strategic investment of €6m (~£5.1m) that will be used to further scale the company and expand to new markets.
According to the release, the new investment will be used to hire at least 25 new team members and double the Berlin-based company’s strategic partnership portfolio.
Greywood Investments, the largest shareholder of Canadian gaming and esports company Enthusiast Gaming, has publicly targeted the organisation’s leadership, urging its CEO Adrian Montgomery to step down.
Greywood, which owns 9.3 percent of Enthusiast Gaming, created a website named ‘Upgrade EGLX’ to publish texts in which the shareholder expresses its discontent with the current Enthusiast Gaming management. In particular, Greywood highlights data like the drop of stock value by the holding from ‘$8.64 (~£5.36) on April 20th, 2021, to $2.10 (~£1.30) per share on May 23rd, 2022.
