The funding was led by Matrix Partners, with participation from Initialized Capital, Susa Ventures, and Sterling.VC. Ilya Sukhar, general partner at Matrix Partners, joined the Board of Directors as part of the investment.

"Today, gaming communities use a variety of tools to chat and to organize, but none of them are built for them," said Eli Brown, founder and CEO, Guilded. "We're building the world's best platform for connecting communities - and we're building it specifically for gamers."

Guilded will use the capital to strategically expand the company's world-class team, build out powerful features and functionality, and create strategic partnerships with top games publishers and developers, as well as esports teams and organizations.

"Eli and Guilded are building the gaming community tools I wish I had when I was a teenager with an Everquest guild," said Alexis Ohanian, managing partner at Initialized Capital. "We're excited to support them on the next phase of their journey as they start to support tournaments, voice, video and more."

Guilded has already built an array of powerful features for gaming communities into the platform, including robust voice and video chat, group calendars and scheduling tools, and more. In June, Guilded will launch its highly-anticipated Tournaments feature, bringing integration with its full suite of advanced collaborative tools to the world of esports leagues and tournament management.

"We are very excited about Guilded and Eli's mission," said Ilya Sukhar, general partner, Matrix Partners. "Guilded is already a superb product, and it has the potential to become the go-to platform for gamers of all stripes, from casual gaming communities to esports teams."

To learn more about the company and its vision, visit: www.guilded.gg

About Guilded:

Guilded is the ultimate chat platform for gaming communities. Founded in 2017 by Eli Brown, a former pro gamer who played an integral role on Instagram's Growth Team and Microsoft's Xbox team, Guilded serves the world's top professional esports teams and over 50,000 high school, collegiate, casual and semi-pro teams. The company is backed by Y Combinator, Matrix Partners, Initialized Capital, Susa Ventures, Sterling.VC, ZhenFund, and Liquid 2 ventures.