Esports organisation Gen G., the parent company of Overwatch League team Seoul Dynasty and owner of several other esports teams have announced on Wednesday that it has raised $46million as investments from various sources which include some big-name celebrities.
The investors for the latest round of investments include some big name such as Will Smith and Japanese soccer player Keisuke Honda’s Dreamers Fund, Los Angeles Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong and Alibaba Group’s former chairman of U.S. investments, Michael Zeisser.
With the rise in popularity of esports across the globe, big-name stars and celebs have not remained shy of investing in esports. Many stars have already invested or have expressed interest to do so. With the latest trend of stars investing in esports, we may see more big names joining soon. All these investments would help to skyrocket the popularity of esports even more and help the organisations in training more talents for the future.
Gen.G CEO, Chris Park said that:
We are grateful for the support of a remarkable group of investors that is as diverse as the future of esports itself, Our partners in this round share Gen.G’s mission to reimagine sports entertainment as only an authentically global esports organization can.
With the latest round of investments, the new capital will go towards expanding international presence in more games and the development of Gen. G’s youth esports academy program, and the launch of Gen. G’s LA headquarters in July. Will Smith and Keisuke Honda will join Chris in supporting Gen. G’s creative and commercial endeavours, advising Gen. G’s players and content creators.
“I am excited that Dreamers Fund, the fund that I co-launched with Will Smith, is now investing in Gen.G,” said Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda.
Esports is not yet big in Japan, but we are seeing tremendous growth there and globally, which is very positive. We decided to invest in Gen. G because of their incredible team and grand vision to become a leader in the space. We truly look forward to working with Gen.G to boost the esports industry around the world.
Other investors in the round include MasterClass co-founder and CEO David Rogier, as well as Conductive Ventures, Canaan Partners and Stanford University. Silicon Valley Bank has been named Gen.G’s banking partner and will be working with the esports organization on future events and content through 2020.
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