The Berlin-based eSports company, DOJO Madness recently announced their $4.5 million Series A round of funding, which will help expand their innovative coaching apps.
DOJO Madness received their Series A funding in large part from March Capital Partners, and the Investment Bank of Berlin. This new round of funding brings the startup’s total investment to $6.75 million. The company was founded in December of 2014, and their first app, LOLSUMO, has been very successful.
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LOLSUMO is a machine-learning app, which helps League of Legends players improve their skills. The real-time-coaching app brings all the tips and tools a player could need, into one place. The app suggests the best builds, as well as specific insights on how to best utilize every champion the game has to offer.
League of Legends is the most popular game in the world, with 67 million people playing every month. The game features 120 different champions, and over 200 items. Therefore LOLSUMO is designed to help players understand specific matchups. DOJO Madness is able to provide their users with the most comprehensive game tips and advice, based on the vast amount of data they collect. They have comprehensive data on roughly 4 billion game events, which help provide users over 2 million unique guides.
LOLSUMO has been downloaded over 500,000 times since it launched. There are currently 70,000 daily users, making it the top rated League of Legends app. And the CEO of DOJO Madness, Jens Hilgers, wants to build on this success. “We launched our first coaching App, LOLSUMO, a year ago, and we have been overwhelmed by the positive user feedback. With our new funding, we will continue to add great features, and launch our service for additional eSports games.”
DOJO Madness will need this funding to expand and grow their outreach, because they are a part of a very crowded field. As the eSports world grows in popularity, the race to monetize becomes even greater. Yahoo recently rolled out their own eSports app, which provides live tournament coverage, news, highlights and much more for the biggest games, including League of Legends.
The growth potential for eSports is just starting to scratch the surface. Sports media giants like ESPN, are investing heavily, and official governing bodies are being formed. Making it the perfect time for DOJO Madness to enhance and grow their business.
Gregory Milken, Managing Director of March Capital Partners, the biggest investor in their Series A round of funding, is very excited about the growth potential for DOJO Madness. “We have monitored the explosive growth of eSports, and believe that the future is in data services… The machine learning technology that Dojo Madness brings to the table is a game changer for League of Legend players, and I can’t wait to see it rolled out to additional games.”
Many financial experts are projecting eSports to grow to over a billion dollar-industry by 2019. With their new investments allowing them to improve and expand, we can expect DOJO Madness to become a major force in the eSports community, for years to come.