US-based eSports team owner Immortals completed a $30m series B round on Wednesday that included entertainment producer Lionsgate and sports and live event promoter AEG Worldwide.
Venture capital firm March Capital Partners also participated in the round, along with the Milken Family and private investors Steve Kaplan, Meg Whitman and John Griffin.
Immortals, which announced the round together with its rebranding to Immortals Gaming Club (IGC), runs teams competing on real-time strategy title Clash Royale and shooter games Overwatch, Counter-Strike and Rainbow Six Siege.
The company has rebranded to reflect its acquisition of Gamers Club, a Brazil-based gaming community that matches online gamers with each other so they can play in tandem or competitively. It claims to be the first company to own an eSports franchise and gaming platform simultaneously.
Ari Segal, Immortals’ CEO, said: “Bringing together a premier platform in Gamers Club and our core eSports team operations is a critical and exciting step in enabling IGC to become a vertically integrated, truly global esports and gaming organisation.”
Lionsgate had joined VC fund CrossCut Ventures, Michael and Gregory Milken, Steve Kaplan and Allen DeBevoise to invest an undisclosed amount in Immortals in January 2017 that was followed by a similarly undisclosed sum from AEG five months later.
