Heroic secures vital $1m investment, avoids closure

Heroic CSGO
(ESI Illustration) Image credit: Adela Sznajder/ ESL Gaming / Heroic

Norwegian esports company Heroic Group has secured a funding round of NOK 10m (~£780,000) with primarily existing shareholders, allowing it to continue operations.

The funding round will be used to cover the day-to-day expenses of the organisation and ensure Heroic can continue competing in CS:GO, Rainbow Six and sim racing.

The news comes after a period of uncertainty for the organisation. On January 30th this year, Heroic Group noted to its shareholders that further funding is needed via an extraordinary general meeting. The company announced that it needs at least NOK 80m (~£6.2m) through 2025, with NOK 10m needed before the summer of 2023.

Although the consequences of failure were not mentioned in the report, the language suggested that the company might have large issues if the money is not to be raised.

Fortunately for Heroic, the money was raised and the operations can continue. In a LinkedIn post detailing the situation, Heroic noted that the NOK 10m (approximately $1m) was raised “primarily in preference shares with existing shareholders”, hinting that there might be new shareholders involved.

The company will, however, need to further intensify its efforts to secure cash flow if it wants to meet its goal of having NOK 80m (£6.2m) before 2025.

The successful funding round is a welcome piece of positive news in 2023, especially amidst a large number of shutdowns and layoffs in the esports industry.

It comes after a worrying NASDAQ stock exchange situation for FaZe Clan, arguably the best-known esports and gaming brand globally, despite the organisation’s continued competitive success.

Even though Heroic required extra funding, recent months saw positive competitive results for the organisation, especially on the CS:GO front. Heroic’s CS:GO team placed second at both the IEM Katowice 2023 and the IEM Rio Major 2022, and won the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals 2022.

Ivan Šimić
Ivan comes from Croatia, loves weird simulator games, and is terrible at playing anything else. Spent 5 years writing about tech and esports in Croatia, and is now doing it here.