Fnatic has secured $19m in Series A funding and made some senior management changes.
The investment round was led by entrepreneur Lev Leviev of LVL1 Group with new and continued support from investors including UK’s Beringea, BlackPine, Unbound and Joi Ito.
A new leadership team has also been appointed, including former Mercedes AMG F1 CEO Nick Fry (Fnatic chairman), serial entrepreneur and Affectv founder Glen Calvert (COO) and Fnatic founder Sam Mathews (CEO).
Sam has retaken the CEO position previously held by Wouter Sleijffers. A Fnatic spokesperson has confirmed to Esports News UK that Wouter will be leaving the organisation.
With this new investment, Fnatic says it will enter the next phase of its global expansion, strengthen involvement in tier-one leagues, including the League of Legends European Championships, launch new product categories in its esports equipment subsidiary (including a new audio line) and scale up resources to ‘deliver and deploy marketing efforts and reach for brands on an international scale’.
“This is a pivotal moment in the evolution of Fnatic.”
Sam Mathews, Fnatic
Lead investor Lev Leviev said: “Esports is the future of entertainment as well as one of the most dynamic and exciting emerging industries out there. Fnatic has established itself as a driving force both on the competitive stage and as a global business in esports. I’m excited to be part of the next chapter as Fnatic scales into a global lifestyle brand.”
CEO Sam Mathews added: “This is a pivotal moment in the evolution of Fnatic. I am incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved over the past 15 years and now is the time to build on this strong foundation to realise our vision of being the leading global esports brand.
“To have such high caliber investors is telling of the potential they see in Fnatic and our future.”
The latest round of investment will be used to structure the company for further expansion into Asia and North America, to continue to partner with brands and to cement Fnatic’s position as what it describes as ‘the leading lifestyle esports organisation globally’.
Fnatic was founded by Sam Mathews back in 2004. It’s headquartered in Shoreditch, London, and has other operational locations in Berlin, Belgrade, Los Angeles, Taipei, Shenzhen and Kuala Lumpur.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
