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☆ Sony is making a bold bet on an African gaming startup to boost PlayStation’s reach in the continent
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Sony is making a bold bet on Africa's video game industry. The Japanese consumer electronics and gaming giant has invested an undisclosed sum into Carry1st, a video game studio based in Cape Town, South Africa, via its Sony Innovation Fund venture arm, Carry1st told CNBC exclusively. The deal is a strategic investment that will see the two companies partner on a range of commercial opportunities. "We believe very firmly that there is an incredibly underrated console opportunity in Africa," Robbin-Coker said, citing countries like Nigeria, Morocco and Algeria as places where console adoption is rising a lot. Sony is coming into an emerging gaming market with blistering growth potential.

Persons: Carry1st, Cordel, Coker Organizations: Sony, Sony Innovation Fund, CNBC, PlayStation Locations: Cape Town , South Africa, Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, Algeria, Konvoy

☆ FaZe Clan's plummeting valuation shows how risky it can be to bet your company's future on influencers
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Dan Whateley | Geoff Weiss | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

While esports as a category has broadly struggled with monetization , FaZe's difficulties stemmed more from its reliance on just a few influencers for revenue. The company makes money through revenue splits with its talent, brand partnerships, and esports winnings. For FaZe, that revenue is often concentrated on the backs of a few big stars. "This was too nascent of a business model to be publicly traded with too much 'key person risk' around influencers," Chapman said of FaZe. GameSquare has subsidiaries like merchandise brand Mission Supply Co., influencer-marketing platform Sidekiq, and streaming data analytics firm Stream Hatchet, all of which could potentially be applied to the FaZe brand.

Persons: Influencers, Clan, monetization, Michael Metzger, Josh Chapman, FaZe, Chapman, Justin Kenna, Kenna, we're Organizations: Drake, Konvoy Ventures, Clubhouse Media, YouTube Locations: influencers, GameSquare

☆ After blockbuster Microsoft deal, gaming giants are still sitting on $45 billion cash hoard
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Public gaming companies currently hold cash and cash equivalents of $45.1 billion, according to a report from venture capital firm Konvoy. Publicly listed gaming companies had a fairly rosy year in 2023, on the whole. The VanEck Video Gaming and eSports ETF , which seeks to track MVIS Global Video Gaming & eSports Index, has climbed 20% in the year to date, according to Konvoy. Total venture funding into the video games industry in the third quarter of 2023 fell 9% quarter-over-quarter, to $454 million. That was when pandemic lockdowns were in full swing, and people had more time to spend playing video games indoors.

Persons: China's NetEase, hasn't, China's Tencent, Josh Chapman, Redmond, Chapman, Candy Crush, Konvoy's Chapman Organizations: Chesno Publicly, CNBC, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Public, Gaming, Esports, Big Tech, Microsoft, Google, Apple, Meta, Netflix, Sony, Activision, U.S, U.K, Markets Authority, Duty, Bandai Namco Entertainment Locations: Konvoy, Washington

Plus, it will be “productive for the gaming industry as a whole and healthy for competition in the gaming market,” he said. In the meantime, the U.K. regulator was the last major obstacle to the transaction going through. British regulators had initially blocked the transaction over concerns Microsoft could withhold Activision titles from the cloud gaming market. One factor was the EU’s approval, granted after Microsoft promised to automatically license Activision titles royalty-free to cloud gaming platforms. But the CMA's flip-flopping makes the U.K. regulator look “weak and indecisive,” he said.

Persons: Activision Blizzard, Candy, Overwatch —, Brad Smith, Bobby Kotick, Joshua Chapman, ”, Sarah Cardell, Max von Thun, ” von Thun, Matt O’Brien Organizations: —, Activision, Markets, Microsoft, Xbox, Union, Sony, U.S . Federal Trade Commission, FTC, Ubisoft Entertainment, U.K, PlayStation, European Commission, Open Markets, CMA, AP Locations: Konvoy, U.K, Europe, Providence , Rhode Island

☆ 9 startup founders who banked with Silicon Valley Bank share where they're moving their money: 'We will not get caught like this again'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Samantha Stokes | Stephanie Palazzolo | Melia Russell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Silicon Valley Bank's failure has left startup founders scrambling for a new home for their money. Last Friday morning, the startup founder Mang-Git Ng zipped up the interstate before sunrise to a Silicon Valley Bank branch in St. Helena, in California's wine country. Ng's plight is similar to countless other founders following the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, who waited with bated breath over the weekend on whether they'd ever get their money back. DiversificationSilicon Valley Bank's collapse could forever change how startups stash their cash, at least two investors told Insider. Silicon Valley Bank had exclusivity clauses with some of its clients, according to a CNBC report, forcing them to use the firm for most or all of their banking services.

☆ Read the 9-page pitch deck that YouTuber Moriah Elizabeth used to raise $2.5 million for her art app 'Spark'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Geoff Weiss | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Arts and craft creator Moriah Elizabeth has raised $2.5 million for her digital art startup. The app emerged from Night Labs – the same venture studio that built MrBeast Burger and Feastables. In a video introducing the platform, Elizabeth noted that upon firing up the app, Spark provides users with three creative prompts. "You're not going to make the most complicated, realistic art on here," Elizabeth explained in the video. You can check out the pitch deck that it used to raise its seed round below.

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