Ready, developer of esports tournament platform The Ready Games, has announced the close of a $5 million (£4 million) Series A funding round.
The round was led by BITKRAFT Esports Ventures and includes participation from new investors Comcast Ventures and Eldridge Industries.
Scott Rupp, Founding Partner of BITKRAFT Esports Ventures commented in a release: “The gaming industry often overlooks one of the most significant audiences – women. In the U.S., 65% of women play mobile games, and they represent almost half of the mobile gaming population. The Ready Games powered by Ready Maker game development technology has become one of the most prolific mobile developers in the App Store, catering to the rapidly growing audience of female gamers. We believe this team can continue their momentum with this funding and grow a global community of people playing competitive hyper-casual games for cash.”
The Ready Games allows casual players to compete in three new games each week, available through both iOS and Android in the USA and Canada. Players can participate in practice runs before playing an official run to compete for a place at the top of the leaderboard. The prize money is then split among the top players.
Ready explained that it will use the Series A funding to “dramatically grow its audience of engaged players and accelerate overall growth in the competitive hyper-casual gaming market.”
David S. Bennahum, Founder and CEO of Ready added: “With touch-enabled devices everywhere, games are no longer exclusive to ‘hardcore’ players. There’s a huge, untapped market for casual games that can be enjoyed competitively by a diverse audience that does not identify as traditional gamers. With our new financing and leading gaming investors joining us, we now have the resources to make our vision of opening up esports to everyone, a reality.”
The leader of the round, BITKRAFT Esports Ventures, has made a number of big investments so far this year, contributing to company Tonk Tonk Games, Japanese esports events organiser PlayBrain, and in-game advertising platform Anzu.
Esports Insider says: It’s great to see another successful funding round led by BITKRAFT; with it already making several big moves this year, Ready appears to be in safe hands. Ready has quite a unique offering in this space so it’ll be interesting to say if it acquires the popularity of other mobile games.
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