Mobalytics, an eSports company creating a more robust way for competitive gamers to analyze and improve performance, announced it has raised $2.6 million in seed funding from Almaz Capital, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, and GGV Capital. The funds will be used to grow the company and launch the first version of its platform. The team is hiring passionate gamers who love to think about gaming and performance critically.
Millions of gamers play competitively every day and all of them want to win. By applying machine learning to the in-game data and leveraging professional expertise, Mobalytics assesses a player's strengths and weaknesses to provide actionable, individualized insights on how to improve. The company first showcased its technology in September at TechCrunch Disrupt 2016 in San Francisco and won the coveted Disrupt Cup and $50,000.
'We love to partner with founding teams that are tuned-in to their customers, and are focused on creating a better experience for customers they understand well. This combined with the team's deep analytics and fighter pilot background was impressive, and establishes a strong foundation that extends across the sport performance sector,' said Hans Tung, Managing Director, GGV Capital and TechCrunch Start-up Battlefield judge.
'We were blown away with quality of the team and the power of their demo,' said Daniil Stolyarov of Almaz Capital. 'They are well positioned to become the new standard in eSports analytics and the go-to source for gamers seeking to sharpen their skills.'
'We were not expecting that so many people, besides gamers, would care about a problem that we are so passionate about,' said Amine Issa, Ph.D., Mobalytics co-founder and chief scientist. 'However, we're extremely excited to have such amazing support and are looking forward to launching the platform later this year.'
Mobalytics plans to launch the first version of its platform in a private beta and grant access to the first 10,000 users from the waiting list in November. The initial version is focused specifically on League of Legends since that game has the most robust API and the largest eSports community. In line with its goal to expand to all competitive games, Mobalytics also opened pre-registration for the Overwatch platform, which is planned for launch next year.
Today, the team is working on the core of the Mobalytics platform, the The Gamer Performance Index (GPI). The GPI uses data available from the game API and crunches it through machine learning algorithms to determine player performance. Based on the GPI, the platform will automatically generate personalized insights to define play style, strengths and weaknesses, and provide advice on how to improve.
Issa explained: 'The most important goal for now is to make sure that our algorithms generate meaningful insights and add value to the player experience. We want players to see themselves in the GPI. Only in that way will they trust the platform and rely on Mobalytics to up their game.'
To ensure the results are meaningful, the company is currently testing the alpha version of the platform with League of Legend coaches and a handful of users. Also, they are working with pro players and teams to get their input on the player assessment process.
'We believe that eSports is an amazing field to apply a 'Moneyball' approach,' said Mykola Lobanov, CTO and the third co-founder of Mobalytics. 'In contrast with traditional sports where you need to create complex solutions to get data, eSports data is readily available and actionable. With some intelligent manipulation there is almost no limit on the amount of insights you can uncover.'
After closing the round, the Mobalytics team is bringing their focus back to the platform and planning to grow the team. 'We are on a mission to build the ultimate analytics platform for competitive gamers, one which gives dynamic and meaningful insights on individual performance and allows game players everywhere to excel and improve. We are relentless in pursuing product excellence and we have a dedication to creativity that means our job is never done. We are looking for passionate, dedicated and world class people who spend their time conquering the online ladders to join our team,' added Bogdan.
About Mobalytics
Mobalytics is an eSports company creating a new, more robust way for competitive gamers to analyze and improve performance. The company is developing a Gamer Performance Index (GPI) that involves using in-game data available from game APIs and crunching it through machine learning algorithms to analyze and improve player performance across several areas crucial for competitive gaming. Winner of the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield at Disrupt 2016, Mobalytics investors now include by Almaz Capital, BetaBridge Capital, Deep Space Ventures, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, GGV Capital, and a group of angel investors.