Startups Investment Recap – February 25

eFuse has received a further $6M in funding

Esports social media venture eFuse has received a further $6 million in funding from a consortium of professional athletes, gaming influencers, and business executives. In its latest round of funding, led by the Ohio Innovation Fund, eFuse–which positions itself as “esports’ home for qualified talent”–earned backing from NFL and NBA stars Odell Beckham Jr. and Denzel Ward, Ezekiel Elliott , Chase Winovich, and Seth Curry. With its new funding, eFuse will roll out a raft of platform enhancements which it hopes will grow its user base and boost industry diversity, while it also plans to expand its “eRena” competitive events, make key hires, and ultimately secure profitability.

2up is launching to help gamers connect on and off screen

As gaming continues to grow in popularity, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, a new startup called 2up is launching to help gamers connect both on and off screen. 2up isn’t specifically a dating app — users can specify if they’re looking for new friends, new teammates or a romantic connection on the app. They also can share their preferred console or platform, favorite games and whether they prefer to play games competitively or casually, filtering down their potential matches based on aligned interests. The startup plans on generating revenue through a premium subscription, not unlike other matching and dating apps. 2up has been bootstrapped since its inception.

Homa Games has raised a $15M seed round

French startup Homa Games has raised a $15 million seed round led by e.ventures and Idinvest Partners. The company has built several in-house technologies that can take a game from prototype to App Store success. It partners with third-party game studios and has a few in-house game studios as well. OneRagtime, Jean-Marie Messier, Vladimir Lasocki, John Cheng and Alexis Bonillo are also participating in the funding round. The startup has some impressive metrics so far as its games have been downloaded 250 million times overall since the creation of the company in 2018. It has signed an IP partnership with Hasbro to launch a Nerf-themed game that has been working quite well.

Powder has raised a $14M Series A round

Powder, a French startup that helps you share video clips of your favorite games, follow people with the same interests and interact with them has raised a $14 million Series A round led by Serena. The round also saw participation from General Catalyst, Slow Ventures, Alven Capital, Bpifrance’s Digital Venture fund, Secocha Ventures, Turner Novak and Kevin Hartz. Overall, the company has raised $18 million. Powder wants to build the video infrastructure for social gaming. While many communities of gamers already share content on Twitch, Discord and Reddit, there isn’t a dominant mobile app focused on gaming, and Powder can capture video content from any platform.