Yakkr founders Marcus Rowley (left) and Rhys Birkinshaw (right) on screen with Alex Wilby of law firm Swinburne Maddison
Yakkr, a new UK-based platform that lets fans play online games with their favourite esports teams, influencers and celebrities, has secured six figures in funding.
Durham City law firm Swinburne Maddison provided legal advice to the new tech start-up in relation to the pre-seed investment, provided by Athena Venture Capital and backed by TwinklHive, which predominantly invests in the ed-tech sector.
The idea for Yakkr was conceived by two former Durham University graduates, Marcus Rowley and Rhys Birkinshaw, who studied Finance and Computer Science, respectively.
Whilst at university, Marcus was involved in two start-ups and Rhys in several, with one of these moving over to Silicon Valley.
Swinburne Maddison was recommended to the two entrepreneurs by the Durham City Incubator (DCI).
Alex Wilby, a partner in Swinburne Maddison’s corporate and commercial team, who advised Yakkr’s founders, said: “Swinburne Maddison was delighted to have the opportunity to advise on the transaction and build on its solid experience of advising software companies on their terms, ‘software as a service’ agreements and IP matters.”
“With the growth in demand for digital experiences since the start of the pandemic, fans want to engage with their favourite celebrities, influencers and gamers. Yakkr allows this to happen.”
Marcus Rowley, Yakkr
Explaining the thinking behind Yakkr (slang for ‘have a chat’), Yakkr co-founder Marcus Rowley said: “Although it is unlikely you would ever get the chance to play football with Messi, people may like to play a game against him on FIFA and pay for the experience. With the growth in demand for digital experiences since the start of the pandemic, fans want to engage with their favourite celebrities, influencers and gamers. Yakkr allows this to happen.
“The creator schedules their availability along with the game they are playing and the price per slot; the fan purchases a space in the session they want to join and then when the time comes, they jump into a Yakkr session and it’s game on.”
The company is currently at pre-revenue stage and the funding will be used to fund the creation of the business and the Yakkr platform.
Prior to receiving the investment, Marcus was working for one of the big four accounting firms and heading towards his ACA qualification.
Rhys was working as lead developer for a start-up in the commodities industry, so the Twinklhive investment has enabled them both to go full time in Yakkr, along with employing an additional front-end developer.
The plan is to release Yakkr in Spring 2022 with the core functionalities available for users, and more to follow in the future.
The platform is reminiscent of Bast, another gaming platform that allows fans to challenge sports celebs in 1v1 matches.
There’s more info on the Yakkr website
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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.
