US-based fantasy e-sports startup Vulcun has secured $12m in series A funding from investors including music corporation Universal Music Group and talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA), VentureBeat reported yesterday.
The round also featured Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Battery Ventures, Crosscut Ventures and angel investors including Joe Kraus, a partner at internet company Google’s corporate venturing arm Google Ventures. CAA invested through its CAA Ventures unit.
Vulcun operates a website with tournaments for fantasy e-sports, where users can put together a team of their favourite professional video game players, act as their manager and bet real money on their success in online game tournaments.
The company recently announced a $1m prize pool for its most popular tournament, which centres on the League of Legends game.
Vulcun previously attracted $1.3m in seed funding from eVentures, Battery Ventures, and 500Startups. The series A funding will go towards product development and building out Vulcun’s community of users.
Josh Hannah, partner at Matrix Partners, explained: “E-sports leagues will be the National Football Leagues of the 21st century, with truly global fan bases and games that today’s youth relate to.
“Tournaments for e-sports already draw larger live audiences that most traditional sports and are just in their infancy. Vulcun.com provides the connection between fans and the emerging stars and teams in e-sports.”