FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Genvid Technologies Announces Next Round, Raises $10M for its Interactive Streaming Engine from Horizons Ventures
Further announces Unity streaming waiver for developers on heel of uses at Evo 2018 and upcoming esports tournaments, as well as a new Japanese subsidiary
NEW YORK (August 20, 2018) – Interactive streaming engine developer Genvid Technologies, Inc. today announced the closing of a new round of funding from Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Mr. Li Ka-shing. A total of $10 million was raised in this new financing round.
Genvid has raised $20M to-date, with its Series A having been announced in April 2018.
New Financing Round The funds will be used to triple the company’s growth in the next two years; enabling Genvid to grow its current stack of technologies as well as build new media, bespoke offerings and platform teams. Furthermore, the company will continue its international and vertical expansions, moving beyond esports into mobile, arcade and VR gaming across the US, EU, Japan and China, as well as new opportunities in real sports and the wider media. “Customer interest in our solutions is growing every day,” says Jacob Navok, CEO of Genvid. “Our patented, cross-platform interactive streaming engine can be used directly on popular platforms like Twitch, and across infrastructures and engines such as AWS, Unreal and Unity. And we are thrilled to bring on Horizons Ventures, whose tremendous track record among investments includes Facebook, Siri, Zoom, Waze, Spotify and now Genvid.” “Game broadcasting brings about a surging opportunity for media, telecom, and sports industries,” says Jonathan Tam of Horizons Ventures, who will be joining Genvid’s Board of Directors. “We feel that the unparallel interactivity and real-time composition capability of Genvid’s technology will bring a new kind of streaming experience for the 2 billion gamers worldwide.”
Great News for Unity Developers
Announced today is a waiver for Unity developers that integrate the Genvid SDK available from September 1st 2018. Normally, developers looking to utilize Unity for Cloud and Streaming purposes are restricted from during so by the Unity Terms of Service, without separate direct permission from Unity. Going forward, Genvid is now able to offer a direct side-letter covering any Unity developer for Genvid-enabled interactive streams.
“Our main goal is to make it as easy and attractive as possible for developers to create awesome viewer-facing content” says Genvid COO Chris Cataldi. “This new deal, coupled with the easy to use and always improving Genvid plugin for Unity, are prime examples of why developers choose Genvid to power their interactive broadcast programming.”
If you’re a Unity developer who wants to generate interactive streams via Genvid, further details can be found at the Genvid SDK Licensing page at https://www.genvidtech.com/licensing
Esports Tournament Broadcasts
Genvid is being increasingly used for esports tournaments broadcasting to Twitch, YouTube, etc. and was most recently used earlier this month at Evo 2018 by Chilean game developer AOne Games for live tournament broadcasts of its new UE4-based fighting game Omen of Sorrow. Genvid interactivity was available directly on Twitch through a Twitch Extension, which enabled users (in the case of this tournament, the casters using instant replay) to toggle on/off in realtime the character hitboxes, player inputs and HUD. Additional functionality such as viewer cheering and display of win/loss probability are already in the works for future tournaments, with more dates and details to be announced soon.
Video clips from the Evo Tournament include https://www.twitch.tv/nycfurby/video/293236938 and more videos and clips are available at our Media Kit for this release https://www.genvidtech.com/Horizons2018mediakit
More games and tournaments integrating the Genvid SDK will be announced in coming months.
Japanese Subsidiary
Genvid is also announcing the establishment of Genvid Technologies Japan K.K., the company’s latest international expansion located in Tokyo, Japan. Genvid’s technology has proven tremendously popular among Japanese developers and media companies, and the new subsidiary will be growing staff to market and support the activities.
Already an early September 2018 tournament for esports title Blitz Freak in the Red Bull Gaming Sphere Tokyo arena using Genvid’s technology and benefitting from the Genvid/Unity deal has been announced by ActEvolve, a Japanese indie game developer using Unity.
Genvid’s Japan office joins its existing New York headquarters and its Montreal development hub (Genvid Technologies Canada Inc.) Genvid is actively exploring its next set of expansions, expected for Europe in the next year.
About Genvid Technologies
Founded in 2016 by game industry veterans and backed by Horizons Ventures, Makers Fund, March Capital Partners and OCA Ventures, Genvid provides an SDK for game developers to integrate into their games and allows game developers to make revolutionary broadcasts. The Genvid SDK is a simple-to-use middleware, flexible enough to run on any streaming platform and infrastructure that developers want to support. As a result, livestreams can be monetized through transactions that are uniquely targeted to the individual watching, leading to a significant revenue opportunity for game developers through sponsorships and in-stream purchases. The first interactive streaming tools built specifically for game developers, the Genvid SDK be can downloaded for free at https://www.genvidtech.com
The company’s name is a fusion of two Latin root words, Gen meaning “birth” and Vid meaning “viewing”; reflecting the company’s mission to power a new era of interactive streaming experiences.
A media kit for this release, including screenshots, is available at https://www.genvidtech.com/Horizons2018mediakit
About Horizons Ventures
Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Mr. Li Ka-shing, is a leading investor in some of the world’s most innovative companies and disruptive technologies including Facebook, Waze, Spotify, Siri, Improbable, and Impossible Foods.
Contact:
Company name: Genvid Technologies, Inc.
Email Address: info@genvidtech.com
Company Name: ActEvolve
Email Address: info@actevolve.com
Company Name: AOneGames
Email Address: Felipe Budinich felipe@aonegames.com
The Genvid SDK is Copyright 2016-2018 Genvid Technologies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Twitch and Twitch Extensions are © 2017-2018 Twitch Interactive, Inc.
