Esports juggernaut Cloud9 has raised $19.7 million (£14.68m) of a potential $25 million (£18.6m) in equity financing in its latest financing round.
The figures are revealed in an SEC filing from earlier this week. The filing states that the “Total Offering Amount” was $25,000,019, with $19,702,231 sold and thus $5,297,788 “Remaining to be Sold”.
Due to the nature of the SEC filing, no further information on who the investors are have been revealed. The only tell-tale signs are the replacement of Dan Fiden, the CSO of FunPlus on the filing with Andy Zhong, the CEO of FunPlus and Brian Singerman, a partner at Founders Fund who was also involved in an initial round of investment for Cloud9.
The latest round of funding comes after Cloud9 has secured a spot in the Overwatch League, nabbing the London franchise spot and is arguably well positioned to snag a spot in the newly franchised North American LCS following Riot’s plans revealed earlier this year.
The buy-in for the Overwatch League is believed to be approximately $20,000,000 so it makes sense that the funding desire was just over the aforementioned figure. Cloud9 will undoubtedly be one of the favourites having signed one of the most esteemed Korean squads to its ranks in Overwatch just over seven days ago.
The organisation continues to house a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, League of Legends team and has taken another brief hiatus from Dota 2 although we wouldn’t bet against them returning to the fray shortly. It also has a variety of players across different esports, including arguably the best Western Vainglory team who will head to Singapore to compete in the world championships in December.
Esports Insider says: More big investment coming in for a team involved in the Overwatch League. Congratulations to Jack Etienne and co as Cloud9 continues to forge its path as one of the leading worldwide esports organisations.