Vancouver E-sports Startup Battlefy Raises $1.3 Million Seed Funding Round

Battlefy today announced a $1.3 million seed round.

The scalable, turnkey e-sports management platform raised the money from Deep Fork Capital, William Morris Endeavor, Jarl Mohn (former Chairman of Riot Games), Dennis Phelps (partner at IVP), Bill Lohse (former president Ziff Davis and SoftBank Forums), BDC Ventures, and Keith Boesky.

“I believe that e-sports is the next big entertainment and marketing investment thesis,” says Jarl Mohn, former Chairman of Riot Games and Board Member at CNET. “When Riot Games can sell out Staples Center in 20 minutes so people can watch video gamers compete something massive is happening. Battlefy is one of the few companies perfectly positioned to help make this happen and be a huge part of the success.”

Mohn is referring to the League of Legends Season 3 World Championships: the event sold out LA’s Staples Center in under an hour and attracted over 32 million live viewers online. For perspective, the NBA Finals attracted 18 million live viewers on network television.

“With some 32 million fans tuning in to watch League of Legends Season World Championship at a sold-out Staples Center in October, eSports is just hitting its stride. Battlefy is now set to be the platform to serve that exploding global audience,” says Paul Bricault, Managing Director of Amplify LA.

Battlefy, a recent graduate of the Amplify LA accelerator, is based in Vancouver.

“E-sports thrives from the same elements of competition, fan fanaticism, and economics as traditional sports,” says Battlefy CEO Jason Xu. “Because participation and spectatorship is virtual, it presents an unprecedented opportunity for global scale, and Battlefy is best poised to deliver the backbone.”