Startups Investment Recap – June 24

Kaia Health closed a $26 million Series B funding round

Kaia Health, a digital therapeutics startup that uses computer vision technology for real-time posture tracking via the smartphone camera to deliver human-hands-free physiotherapy, has closed a $26 million Series B funding round. The round was led by Optum Ventures, Idinvest and capital300 with participation from existing investors Balderton Capital,Heartcore Capital, and Symphony Ventures. This funding follows a $10M Series A that Kaia announced in January 2019, and will go into building the company’s commercial team in the US — now its main market, funding more clinical studies, and conducting additional R&D.

Playbook Closed a $3 million seed round 

Playbook, a creator platform focused on fitness, announced the close of a $3 million seed round from several notable angels today. The investor roster includes Giphy founder Alex Chung, StyleSeat founder Melody McCloskey, and Eventbrite co-founder Renaud Visage. Playbook is not built with a focus on the end user, but rather starts from the premise of giving creators the tools they need to foster their own community of users and monetize their content. Interestingly, Playbook is nott just focused on getting fit. The app, with more than 150 trainers on the platform, also has content around sports training, whether it be for conditioning or working on technique within various sports.

TeamSnap announced raising $5.5M in convertible notes

TeamSnap announced a $5.5 million convertible notes financing. The round was led by Foundry Group and Bolt Ventures. The funding comes as TeamSnap prepares for sports activities to return after the global shutdown. TeamSnap is a leader in sport management technology and supports over 22 million users, 3 million unique teams and 19,000 clubs across more than 100 different sports and activities. Sport organizations, teams, players and families use TeamSnap’s innovative technology everyday to sign up, schedule, communicate, collect payments and coordinate everything for the sports season.

Q9 Raises $14M in Angel Round Investment

Chinese esports organization Q9 Esports Club (Q9) announced that the company has raised a ￥100M RMB ($14M USD) angel investment round led by Chinese angel investors Lei Wen and Chao Liu. Q9 will establish influencer incubators in the Chinese cities of Chengdu, Shenzhen, and Shandong to develop live streamers. In addition, the company will increase its investments in esports, including developing more younger players, and improving its esports training system. Q9 was founded in 2015, and operates two major businesses: live streaming and esports.

G2 Esports Makes ‘High Risk, High Reward’ Investment In ‘Valorant’

“Valorant,” the tactical shooter from TENCENT HOLDING/ADR (OTCMKTS: TCEHY)-owned Riot Games, is getting a lot of attention — and numerous esports organizations have already started investing in talented rosters. Since the game’s release, more esports organizations are jumping into the competition. G2 Esports is just one team moving into the scene. G2 Esports CEO Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez revealed why the organization is investing “heavily” in “Valorant,” and described the “Valorant” effort as a high-risk, high-reward one.

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