Cloud9 raises $50 million toward staff increases, planned new facility
Valor Equity Partners leads Series B funding round as founder Antonio Gracias joins esports organization board
Esports organization Cloud9 has announced it has raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Valor Equity Partners. In addition to its investment, Valor Equity's founder, Antonio Gracias, will join the Cloud9 board.
Forbes reports that the funding round also included TrueBridge Capital Partners, Reimagined Ventures, and Robert Hohman, founder of Glassdoor.
The funding round is expected to help bolster the organization's numbers in the coming year beyond its current staff of 35, as well as assist in building its retail business. It also may add to the capital being aimed at constructing a new training factility in LA, which Cloud9 aims to have completed by the end of 2019.
Though the facility will be used for team training and operations, Cloud9 president Dan Fiden told Forbes the company also hopes to use it as a base for endeavors with youth esports, referring to it as "the esports analogue to a Little League diamond."
"Your 14-year-old daughter loves Overwatch and wants nothing more than to get coached and participate in a league," said Fiden. "This could be the place that you take her for practice on Wednesday afternoon every week."