chiliZ raises $65 million from Binance, other organisations

Binance, an international cryptocurrency exchange, has invested in blockchain esports and traditional sports voting platform, chiliZ.

The amount invested by Binance is undisclosed, but it will “work hand-in-hand” with chiliZ to “engage with the sports industry and develop a fan-driven token ecosystem for traditional sports teams.”

chiliZ

Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of chiliZ discussed this investment: “Binance’s significant investment in chiliZ will boost our current private placement offering and help us to move faster. Their support will help us deliver our vision globally, increase our visibility in the blockchain ecosystem and empower our technical vision. I’m also excited that Binance is setting-up in Malta, where we will be able to share resources, enabling a more strategic partnership.”

Another announcement from the platform has revealed that it has reached its goal of raising $65m (£48.6m) through a global private placement place for chiliZ tokens.

Dreyfus also touched on the amount of money chiliZ has raised: “We have been overwhelmed by the demand for chiliZ tokens in the last few days. It has been a combination of hard work from the team, but also our strategic partners who invested and believe in our long-term vision. This gives us a great runaway to develop and deploy our vision, and to start looking at acquisitions.”

Alongside Binance, organisations such as OK Blockchain Capital, FBG Capital, Ceyuan Ventures, and Bancor all invested. chiliZ will begin its promotion run at Gamescom in Cologne on August 1st-25th. From there, it will be exhibiting at ESI London, a three-day esports business conference on September 18-20th – tickets are available now!

In late May, chiliZ announced plans to invest $10m (£7.4m), at least, into organisations who compete in Battle Royale titles. There main three titles in this genre are Fortnite, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and H1Z1. chiliZ has a strong advisory board with well-known people from the esports industry, such as Fnatic’s CEO Wouter Sleijffers and Team Vitality’s CEO Nicolas Maurer.

Esports Insider says: chiliZ is just one many of many companies involved in esports with a blockchain offering, but as this investment suggests, it’s doing things a little differently. We’re interested to see exactly what’s unveiled later in the year.