Gen.G Raises $46M From Silicon Valley Investors, Actor Will Smith

Esports organization Gen.G has raised $46M USD from a diverse syndicate of investors that includes several prominent Silicon Valley funds and high-profile individuals such as LA Clippers minority owner Dennis Wong and actor Will Smith.

Also providing capital is Dreamers Fund, a fund created by Smith and Japanese soccer star Keisuke Honda, Alibaba Group’s former Chairman/US Investments Michael Zeisser, and MasterClass cofounder David Rogier.

Silicon Valley Bank joined the round and has also become an official marketing partner of Gen.G., said CEO Chris Park. Stanford University invested, along with Silicon Valley firms New Enterprise Associates, Conductive Ventures, Battery Ventures, and Canaan Partners. NEA’s Rick Yang will join the board.

Terms of the deal were not made public. Gen.G said it will use the funding to launch a youth academy program, open team HQ in LA this summer and further expand into new games and regions. Gen.G owns the OWL 

team Seoul Dynasty , and the 2017 world champion team in League of Legends , which competes in the Korean circuit.

Smith and Honda will join current Gen.G Player Management Advisor/retired NBA player Chris Bosh in advising the team’s creative and commercial endeavors.

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Ben Fischer is a staff writer for SportsBusiness Daily, where this article appeared first.

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