The new year bring some great points of news. This week the Rotterdam based Startup Gameye freshly announced their first seed investment round of 1.6 Million today.
The Gameye team have been working to offer scalable multiplayer infrastructures for esports and for gaming studios. Setting up shop in 2017 they have been blazing a path making relationships in Europe and beyond. The round was lead by Seedcamp, Makersfund and Niccolo Maisto, CEO of FaceIt.
The History
Founder Sebastiaan Heijne and Co-founders Elmer Bulthuis, Ralph Heersink and Denise Helderop, Gameye created an API tailored to esports matchmaking platforms and quickly recognized a wider problem faced by many game studios looking to create a stable infrastructure required for multiplayer sessions.
It was after some market research they created a hybrid environment of servers, which ensures each multiplayer session is hosted on the best low- latency network (or one with the fewest interaction delays). Quick, safe and secure for studios and for tournaments for focus on gamers and playing.
The Market
Gameeye sits in one of the fast growing markets that I’m currently aware of: esports. If you don’t know of esports (you really should) this space of multiplayer gaming has exploded in the last few years. What really started as arcade gaming gone wild has evolved into competitive gaming with stadiums filled with onlookers, participants and fans. For a little context here are some stats taken from Newzoo 2018 Global eSports Market Report:
· Global ESports revenues will reach $906 million in 2018, a year-on-year growth of +38.2% (awaiting an update on final figures).
-North America will account for $345 million of the total and China for $164 million.
-Brands will invest $694 million in the ESports industry, 77% of the total market. This will grow to $1.4 billion by 2021, representing 84% of total ESports revenues.
· The total Esports audience will reach 380 million this year, a year-on-year growth of +13.5%.
-The number of eSports Enthusiasts worldwide will reach 165 million in 2018, a year-on-year growth of +15.2%.
