Entrepreneurs join forces to launch £88m tech VC focused on Games, Esports and Digital Sports

Hiro Capital launches an £88m fund, to back the future UK and EU leaders in the global Games, Esports and Digital Sports sectors.

Leading a team with more than 100 years collective experience in these sectors, the Partners will use the fund to accelerate the growth of about 20 UK and European Games and Sports innovators.

Hiro Capital will generally invest at the post-seed stage, at Series A and B. The fund will back deep technology entrepreneurs and creative studios in Games, Esports and Digital Sports and in sector-specific applications of Cloud, Mobile, Streaming, Big Data, AI, Wearables, AR and VR technologies.

By covering all three sectors of Games, Sports and Esports, Hiro Capital strikes a balance of sector-focused pattern-recognition with a wide breadth of opportunities and scale.

Hiro offers macro exposure to three of the fastest growing sectors of the new economy, with 20+ years of tailwinds ahead, combined with exclusive deal flow thanks to the entrepreneurial backgrounds and reputations of the founders.

“Fifteen years ago, the games sector was niche, esports was underground and digital sports tracking was only available to elite athletes” said Luke Alvarez, Managing Partner of Hiro Capital.

“Now there are three billion gamers globally, 600 million game stream fans, and over 500 million sports monitoring smart watches and trackers. Today’s consumers play games, watch streams and post sports stats every day and rarely watch terrestrial TV. 2018/2019 have been breakthrough years for these sectors – from record-breaking streaming events in Fortnite and the real FIFA World Cup, to the recent announcements of Apple Arcade, Google Stadia, the Apple Watch 5, Facebook Horizon and Alibaba+Intel’s AR/VR Athlete tracking for the Tokyo Olympics.

“Games, Esports and Digital Sports are becoming a fundamental ecosystem for entertainment, economic and social life in the mid-21st century. Hiro invests in the innovators who are building that future – they are our heroes.”