The esports and gaming edition of RockTech Paris took place in Paris late last week, and welcomed 100 participants for the industry.
In partnership with Orange & Reed Smith, RockTech Paris #Gaming & #Esport put seven startups specialised in video games and esports in the spotlight. They were each given three minutes to pitch their business in front of the audience and to a jury of potential partners and investors composed of Index Ventures, Orange, Riot Games, Trust Esport Ventures and Meltdown.
The two winners of this edition were:
- Hypersuit (France): ‘Creating ultra-sensational VR Gaming technologies’
- Join (France): ‘First data marketing platform that helps advertisers to optimise their esports media campaigns’
Hypersuit was selected as the best startup by the all-star jury, which included Matthieu Dallon, whereas Join was selected by the audience in a democratic voting process. These two beat off an impressive selection of start-ups which also included StriveWire, Gameblr, Yalla and Matecrate.
Hypersuit is a prototype which gives users the experience of flying. It’s a fully immersive experience, and one which is understandably generating ample attention.
Both the RockTech Paris winners will receive personalised mentoring from RockTech partners Orange and Reed Smith, as well as tickets for our own ESI Super Forum. This one day conference is focused on the convergence of traditional sports and esports, and will take place on March 22nd in London.
Hypersuit specifically will also benefit from three months of incubation at Paris&CO, a new incubator dedicated to esports.
This edition of RockTech Paris also saw a Q&A with PandaScore Founder Flavien Guillocheau and a sit-down with Team Vitality CEO Nicolas Maurer. Vitality recently secured a significant investment to the tune of €2.5m (£2.2m) and announced a deal with Renault at last week’s Esports BAR in Cannes. Amongst a host of other topics Maurer commented on their hiring policy and stated that they often ‘look to hire from outside esports’ for business oriented roles, and he also noted that he ‘really believes in mobile esports’. The team already has rosters in Arena of Valor and Clash Royale, but perhaps we should we expect a Vainglory team from the French organisation sometime soon?
Maurer is amongst the speakers at next month’s ESI Super Forum in London, and attendees will hear more from him there where he’ll be joined by an excellent panel including Nikolaj Nyholm, CEO of RFRSH and Ben Woodward, Co-Founder of Code Red Agency.
Esports Insider says: This was an excellent start-ups focused event with good content, and solid pitches across the board. The jury took their time in the decision making process and so congratulations to Hypersuit for coming out on top. Join clearly impressed the audience too, and sounds like a company well positioned to make some moves in 2018 as more and more brands launch esports campaigns.
