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May 17, 2022
Virtex is expanding its team thanks to $3.2 million raised in a round of seed funding. The company is a VR focused virtual stadium developer, with a focus towards esports. Supporters of the funding round include Global Founders Capital, All Iron Ventures and Graph Ventures. Other investors include Sure Valley, Mario Götze and André Schürrle.
The Virtex Stadium is a social virtual reality experience. People can join a lobby and hang around to chat with dozens of others. Or they can head directly into the stadium proper to grab a seat to watch an event. The stadium itself will be able to support hundreds of users at a time.
The close of the funding round coincides with a partnership with Meta and Echo VR. The money and partnership will hopefully work to expand the reach of the platform. The studio also hopes to grow the size of the development team alongside the platform.
“I’ve been a part of the esports industry for the greater part of the last decade, and during this time I’ve worn many hats, from fan, to player, team owner to on-air talent and production,” said Virtex bossTim Mcguinness. “Through my proximity to and passion for the growing industry of over five hundred million fans, I’ve gained a deep understanding of what those passionate about esports are looking for from their community. With this funding and our continued growth, I’m confident that the value of this billion-dollar industry will continue to grow, at all levels of the ecosystem, as fans and players alike will have new platforms to connect and grow upon.”
Virtex looks at the stadium experience as a transformative layer that others will hopefully build upon in the future. It hopes to solve the monetization obstacle by prioritizing advancing the entire industry by eliminating barriers and empowering esports content.
By creating a new, free and immersive audience channel it hopes to offer entirely new revenue streams as options. For example, it wants to offer digital sports jerseys that actually appear on a player’s avatar while inside the stadium. Being able to actually rock a jersey makes more sense than some item stuck in a digital wallet, after all.
Update 12:24pm ET: Included more investors in the opening paragraph.
Despite the growth it has experienced over the last decade, esports is still in its infancy. The biggest sports events are watched by billions of people. The biggest esports events are watched by less than five million people. At the same time, the esports industry comprises around 500 million people.
Virtex aims to give esports viewers an unparalleled spectator experience–one which, if done correctly, could fundamentally change the way people watch esports forever, and offer an incomparable edge over traditional sports coverage.
Software developer Virtex has announced a live virtual esports event ahead of the launch of Virtex Stadium, which is billed as the world’s first virtual esports stadium.
