June 2022 was a bit slow on the investment front, however, July brought the tempo back up. Last month had one of the most-anticipated stories of 2022, accompanied by some very interesting news that the general public might’ve not expected at all.
We saw FaZe Clan finally go public, XSET raise a sizeable sum and even Misfits leave the LEC. Not to mention other notable stories about Juked, QLASH, and more. Strap in, let’s go!
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Spotlighted story
EVA.GG, a French company creating VR esports venues, has secured an investment of €5m (~£4.26m) to further scale operations in Europe and the United States.
The funding, which has been considered a seed round, will be used to help grow its team and operations. The investment follows a pre-seed round of €2m (~£1.7m) in 2019. Esports Insider spoke with Jean Mariotte, EVA.GG’s CEO and Co-Founder about VR esports, the challenges it faces and Eva’s overall plans for the future.
North American esports organisation OpTic Gaming has announced the acquisition of streaming engagement and monetisation tool Botisimo.
In June 2021, prior to the merger between Envy Gaming and OpTic which resulted in the current OpTic Gaming brand, the organisation invested in Botisimo through a Series A funding round.
FaZe Clan has officially become a public company after going onto the NASDAQ stock exchange. The news come after shareholders at B. Riley Principal 150 Merger Corp (BRPM), a SPAC vehicle, voted to formally approve its merger.
FaZe common stock and warrants will begin trading under the stock ticker symbols FAZE and FAZEW respectively on the NASDAQ stock exchange when the deal — which is still subject to certain closing conditions — goes through. Once the deal has closed, FaZe Clan will be renamed FaZe Holdings Inc.
North American esports organisation XSET has secured $15m (~£12.5m) from its Series A funding round.
According to the release, the capital will be used to invest in new executive talent, as well as in marketing and content creation.
Multinational technology company Sony has announced the acquisition of esports tournament platform Repeat.gg as part of its ongoing PlayStation-focused esports expansion.
Sony is looking to expand the breadth of its esports offerings as well as encourage gamers’ engagement with competitive play. Financial details were not disclosed.
European esports organisation QLASH has raised €2.6m (~£2.2m) in a seed round featuring business angels in the sports world, as well as investors from the entertainment industry.
The investors in this round include Italian UFC fighter Marvin Vettori, volleyball world champion Francesca Piccinini and Real Betis footballer Victor Camarasa.
Juked, a social media app aimed at esports fans has announced the start of a crowdfunding campaign on the Wefunder platform.
The campaign will allow anyone to invest in the company, provided they have more than $100 (£84) to spend.
