Evil Geniuses founder unites esports agencies to form Popdog
Alex Garfield acquires Loaded, NoScope, and esports division of Catalyst; launches with $9m funding round
Alexander Garfield, the founder of esports organization Evil Geniuses, has announced today the acquisition of three other esports names, which he is merging to launch new esports tech and services company Popdog. The company's launch comes with a $9 million Series A funding round led by Makers Fund.
To form Popdog, Garfield has acquired sponsorship and merchandising label Loaded (which provides services for Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, among others), Twitch analytics and discovery service NoScope, and the esports division of Catalyst Sports & Media. Together, the three components will form Popdog, which aims to service as an esports tech and services company providing optimization, streaming services, and other assistance to brands, publishers, streamers, teams, tournaments, and others in the industry.
Joining Garfield to co-found the company are former Counter-Strike world champion and founder of SK Gaming Andreas Thorstensson as CTO and CPO, startup consultant Niles Heron as CSO, and former COO of GoodGame and Evil Geniuses Colin De Shong as CCO.
Popdog will kick off with a $9 million Series A funding round led by Makers Fund and supported by Korea Investment partners. The funding will go toward new technology, services, and product development hires as the company begins to expand its team.
"We're building our company around the core belief that esports and gaming video content, born more from technology than any other sports or entertainment verticals we've seen, need better technology in order to be properly understood, monetized, and optimized," said Garfield. "The industry needs a backend, and our mission is to be that backend by supporting the ecosystem as a whole with a comprehensive offering of technology and services. This funding brings us one step closer to fulfilling that mission.
"We've already assembled an incredible team of industry leaders, product experts, and esports veterans, and we're excited to begin rolling out a suite of products that we think will make operating in the space transparent and scalable, as opposed to opaque and speculative."