Chennai, NFAPost: AFK Gaming, an esports content platform that focuses on Asian content for a global audience, has raised $200k in a Pre-Series A round from Inflection Point Ventures, an early-stage investing platform.
AFK Gaming’s website has scaled its reach 4X since January of this year.
The company is founded by ex pro gamers, commentators and gaming experts. AFK Gaming is an India based, Asian esports news and media company that was started in 2012 as a community forum. The founding team Nishant Patel, Rakesh Ramchandran and Siddharth Nayyar (all gamers and esports enthusiasts themselves) have leveraged on their first mover advantage in the Asian mobile esports content market, with the company clocking over 15 million monthly impressions across web, video and social media.
IPV Founder & CEO Vinay Bansal said, “The ongoing pandemic has introduced us to many aspects of keeping ourselves engaged. Esports and e-gaming have also emerged as new aspects for many of us and companies like AFK Gaming have played a part in keeping us informed about esports in the lockdown.”
“The impact is clear as they registered 4X growth in users. We believe emergence of esports will see an accelerated acceptance in India. Just like healthcare and education, tech will also disrupt many high-ticket sports properties and we believe AFK gaming is poised well to leverage this opportunity,” he added.
Website page views grew nearly 28 times over 9 months, the company said.
AFK Gaming Co-Founder Nishant Patel said, “Despite some of the best esports teams, tournaments and players hailing from the Asian region, there is a distinct lack of coverage available for the global audience. AFK Gaming aims to bridge this gap by marrying our understanding of esports content creation with IPV’s expertise in building scalable, sustainable businesses. Through IPV’s network of senior business professionals, we hope to jump the learning curve with respect to media monetisation, fundraising and other key elements for our growth.”
The funds will be used to link reach to revenue through programmatic and direct advertising while also expanding the scope of coverage to additional esport titles in Southeast Asia. In addition to robust growth across web, video and social media, the company has signed service contracts with some of the largest tournaments’ organisers, publishers and brands in India.
AFK Gaming has a team of 15 across content, tech, marketing and client servicing.
