Startups Investment Recap – February 11

Nerd Street Gamers has raised $11.5M in additional funding

Esports infrastructure company Nerd Street Gamers (NSG) has raised $11.5M in additional funding, with the round led by venture capital firm Founders Fund. According to the release, the additional funds will be used to accelerate the company’s growth. Despite the closure of NSG’s Localhost facilities due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company still achieved growth thanks to the firm’s digital offerings.This round of funding comes after the company raised $12m (~£8.8m) through its Series A funding round in October 2019. Since then, NSG has collaborated with the likes of Riot Games and continued to open Localhosts in Austin, Texas, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.

Latitude has raised $3.3M in seed funding

Latitude, a startup building games with “infinite storylines” generated by artificial intelligence, has raised $3.3 million in seed funding. The startup’s funding was led by NFX, with participation from Album VC and Griffin Gaming Partners. Latitude says AI Dungeon is attracting 1.5 million monthly active users. The startup plans to create more AI-powered games, and eventually to release a platform allowing other game designers to do the same. From a business perspective, AI-powered gaming can lower the cost of developing AAA games from more than $100 million to less than $100,000 — though Latitude has a ways to go before it reaches that level, since it hasn’t even released a game with graphics yet.

Anzu has raised $9M in its latest round of funding

In-game advertising platform Anzu has raised $9M in its latest round of funding, with the likes of BITKRAFT Ventures and Sony Innovation Fund becoming investors. The capital raised will be used to expand the company’s commercial growth alongside funding sales and marketing initiatives to assist in moving it forward on a global scale. The funding round was co-led by BITKRAFT Ventures and HBSE Ventures. Other participants in the funding round include marketing services organisation WPP, The Chicago Cubs, and Alumni Ventures Group, alongside the Sony Innovation Fund. This is the second funding round that the platform has closed after a a $6.5M round it raised in August 2019.

Mobile Premier League has raised $95M in a new financing round

Mobile Premier League (MPL) has raised $95 million in a new financing round. MPL’s latest investors, Moore Strategic Ventures and Composite Capital have given it a post money valuation of $945 million, reports say. With this development, Mobile Premier League has nearly doubled its valuation in just a few months. Existing investors and partners like RTP global, SIG GO-ventures, Telstra Ventures etc. also invested in the round, bringing the company’s to-date-raise to a massive $222.5 million. The startup has stated that it will use the new funds to organize more e-sport tournaments in the country and beyond, and accelerate its international presence.

Sports Data Labs announced that it has received new investment from EmergeVest

Sports Data Labs, Inc. (SD Labs), an award-winning leader in collection, analysis and distribution of real-time Human Data from on-body sensors and sensing systems in professional sports and digital health, announced that it has received new investment from EmergeVest, a Hong Kong-headquartered, a growth-oriented investment group with holdings that include EV Cargo, a leading global logistics-technology company and the largest private logistics company in the UK. As part of the investment, the companies will explore remote health and wellness-focused collaborations in the logistics and insurance sectors. SD Labs provides technology that enables interoperability of sensors and sensing systems.