The co-founders of Team Vitality, Fabien Devide and Nicolas Maurer, have today announced that they have secured a major investment to the tune of €2.5 million (£2.21m). 
This has come from investment groups Korelya Capital, Kima Ventures and H26. H26 is an investment company owned by Olivier Decourt, the President of Ligue 1 side Dijon FCO.
Team Vitality have stated that they will use the funds to ‘recruit the best players, participate in major professional video game competitions and leagues around the world, and create an academy dedicated to League of Legends’. This academy aspect is perhaps the most interesting, and it’s something more teams are looking to as they aim to train and nurture the next generation of pros.
Nicolas Maurer, CEO of Team Vitality said of the news: “Vitality’s ambition is to become an undisputed European leader whose teams participate in all the major professional e-sports leagues. The fundraising, along with our partners, will let us accelerate our growth and consolidate our position among the biggest e-sports brands in Europe.”
Team Vitality is one of the top organisations hailing from France, and recently announced that they would be one of four currently announced new teams to join the new season of Gfinity’s Elite Series in London. This investment is notable too as whilst an increasing number of esports orgs over in the States have found major investors, this is a rarer occurrence here in Europe. Vitality field players and teams across a dozen games including League of Legends, FIFA, and PUBG.
The org has also signed some significant sponsorship deals to date including partnerships with the likes of Canal+ and Volvic, the latter being a refreshing change from the copious amount of energy drink sponsors throughout the scene. Team Vitality also secured a deal with Adidas with the brand becoming the Official Outfitter of the team. This deal was brokered by Havas Sport and Entertainment, and you can read an interview about this here, and why Pierre Acuña called it a “game-changer”.
Esports Insider says: Our congratulations go out to Team Vitality, a team who have been hitting the news in the past year for securing sponsorship deals with major brands and who are active across a huge number of titles. Let’s hope the money is spent wisely, and the French org continues to thrive through 2018 and beyond.
Team Vitality CEO Nico Maurer is one of a host of expert speakers at our upcoming ESI Super Forum on March 22nd at Stamford Bridge in London.
