Today, Singapore-headquartered esports organisation Team Flash announced that it has just secured US$1.5 million (S$2.08 million) in seed funding.
The round was led by Singapore-based family office Octava, which has recently included esports as one of its investment verticals.
The funds raised will be used for international expansion and to secure Team Flash’s market leadership in Vietnam.
It will also enable Team Flash to continue recruiting the best esports players and content creators across the region.
The firm will also be focusing on bringing in brand sponsorships and media partners, as well as launching a dedicated merchandising arm later this year.
Said Mr Terence Ting, CEO of Team Flash: “We are especially excited to announce the collaboration with this group of strategic investors who will greatly facilitate Team Flash’s sprint towards this vision to bring esports further into the mainstream.”
“Our goal is to establish Team Flash as an international esports organisation in the next 12 months, alongside our dedicated team members across the region.”
Added Tan Ting Yong, Investment Director at Octava: “Southeast Asia has the fastest-growing esports demographic in the world and is at the cross-section of powerful trends like social connections and digital consumption of video. Looking ahead, we believe teams will benefit from the structural growth of esports into a fully-fledged professional sport.”
Team Flash was founded in October 2017 by Singaporeans Terence Ting and Samson Oh.
It currently employs over 30 esports professionals and content creators across Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia in game titles like Arena of Valor (AOV), League of Legends (LOL), FIFA, and PUBG Mobile.
Team Flash has won more than US$620,000 in prize money since its inception, reportedly “one of the highest prize totals” for an esports organisation based in Southeast Asia.
Team Flash’s Vietnam AOV team was also most recently crowned world champions at the AOV World Cup, where they won US$200,000 in prize money and also Vietnam’s first international title for esports.
Team Flash’s Vietnam LOL team is also on course to qualify for the LOL World Championship 2019 in Berlin.
The LOL World Championship had a total prize pool of US$6.4 million in 2018.
Locally, Team Flash had recently secured a sponsorship deal with Singapore nutrition company Fitlion and announced a talent development partnership with the Singapore Sports Hub earlier this year.
More commercial and strategic partnerships are scheduled to be disclosed in the coming months.
