UpWest-Backed Quarterback Raises $2.5M Seed Round

We are proud to invest further in Quarterback as the company announces it raised $2.5M in Seed financing.

When UpWest became Quarterback’s first investor in early 2017, we saw the rapidly growing esports market as ripe for disruption. Quarterback CEO Jonathan Weinberg and his team are tech industry veterans who are part of a burgeoning industry that they are now helping to shape, as esports gains more popularity in the US and abroad.

Quarterback is an esports engagement platform for fans, professional players and teams. Quarterback has created the first fan-engagement platform that enables both esports streamers and professional players to continuously engage with their audiences by creating their own fan-club gaming leagues.

In VentureBeat’s coverage of the announcement, CEO Jonathan Weinberg said, “With a large continuous increase in viewership and popularity, online gameplay video content makers, streamers, and professional players are looking at new ways to engage with their communities and generate revenue. Our platform allows the influencer to directly engage with their fans to create increased community involvement and a new revenue stream even while they are offline.”

The round was led by BITKRAFT Esports Ventures, with participation from Crest Capital Ventures, Deep Space Ventures and various angels, as well as UpWest. Quarterback plans to use the new financing to build out its platform and rapidly expand internationally.

Congratulations to Jonathan, Alexander, Yevgeni, and the rest of the Quarterback team! We look forward to many more years of helping the company achieve its goals.

You can read more on Quarterback’s Seed Round in VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Forbes, The Esports Observer, and Esports Insider.

Originally published at upwestlabs.com on May 15, 2018.