Stephen Curry, Andre Iguodala, others invest in esports organization Team Solo Mid
Last Tuesday, July 24, Team Solo Mid’s parent company, Swift, announced it received $37 million in investments. according to Forbes.
The investment is a Series A round of financing, which is the first series of investment a company receives. Since the organization’s founding in 2009, the front man of TSM has been founder and CEO Andy “Reginald” Dinh, who has been in just about every position in the industry; player, coach, manager, analyst, sales, public relations, management, etc. With the massive growth esports has experienced in recent years, Dinh wanted to take the next step in building his esports empire.
“TSM has always run a very lean operation, so we haven’t set ourselves up to take advantage of the fast growth that this market is experiencing, so that’s what we’re trying to prepare ourselves to do,” Dinh told Forbes. “We’ve got a really good group of investors … it’s going to help us accomplish what we want for TSM.”
The funding, headed by Ethan Kurzweil of Bessemer Venture Partners, includes investors like three-time NBA Champions Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala; Steve Simon, owner of Simon Property and son of Indiana Pacers owner Herb Simon; Hall of Fame NFL player Steve Young; and Colin Carrier, former chief strategy officer of Twitch.
Hyped to be part of what @TSMReginald is building with @TSM. #letsgetit https://t.co/H31fPha2uX
— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) July 24, 2018
Other investors include AME Cloud Ventures, a fund started by Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang; Yifang Ventures, led by Eric Xu, cofounder of Baidu; Walter Wang, CEO of JM Eagle, and Telstra, Australian telecommunications company.
TSM plans to use the funding to further develop its place in esports culture. Ten million dollars will go into funding acquisitions and investments in the gaming space, while $20 million will be used for franchising fees and an esports facility. The 15,000-20,000 square-foot facility located in Los Angeles will function as a venue for the players to train, the company to produce multimedia content, and the fans to be able to engage with the organization. Dinh hopes the facility unites its players across various games to compete at a higher level and to help collectively build the company’s signature brand.
“It’s really important to have one single base where we can build up that TSM culture,” Dinh said.
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