Central Europe
LIV secures $2.6m in funding from Hiro Capital for its revolutionary Mixed Reality game streaming platform
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Hiro Capital announces its second deal with a lead Series A investment in Prague-based LIV, the breakthrough VR streaming platform;
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LIV is a next-generation game streaming platform, built to empower Virtual Reality streamers and game stream audiences to interact with each other in fun and meaningful ways – https://liv.tv/;
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LIV’s proprietary technology turns stream viewers from passive spectators into active participants in the game and brings the streamer’s real-world moving body into the live digital VR stream;
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LIV connects Game Developers, Streamers and Audiences to create the ultimate VR spectator experiences
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Hiro Capital and LIV first connected at Slush Helsinki in November 2018, and are pleased to announce this Series A investment concurrent with Slush 2019.
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This Series A round includes co-investment from leading Central European technology VC Credo Ventures and London-based Seedcamp;
LIV – the Mixed Reality game streaming platform – has secured $2.6m in funding to expand its development team in order to accelerate its revolutionary streaming technology and integrate more third-party games studios.
The Series A funding round has been led by Hiro Capital – the new Games, Esports/Streaming and Sports technology VC Fund led by Inspired Entertainment co-founder Luke Alvarez, Games Workshop co-founder Ian Livingstone CBE and Cherry Freeman, co-founder of LoveCrafts. LIV is Hiro’s first Streaming/Esports investment.
LIV was Seed funded by leading technology Seed investors Seedcamp (London), Techstars (Los Angeles) and Credo Ventures (Prague) together with Jaroslav Beck from Beat Games and VR legend Palmer Luckey, the creator of Oculus Rift. Credo Ventures and Seedcamp are also participating in this Series A round alongside Hiro.
LIV was founded in 2016 by AJ Shewki (Dr Doom), Steffan “Ruu” Donal and friends – a team of ex-competitive gamers, Twitch streamers, game developers and nerds who tried early VR HMDs and became convinced of VR’s huge potential in the future of Entertainment and Esports. Yet when they tried to broadcast their adventures in VR, they found the spectator experience was broken.
“The tools used for broadcasting traditional PC games couldn’t show the intensity of what we were experiencing as players” says Dr Doom, CEO and co-founder of LIV. “In VR, your body is the controller and that’s part of the magic. As a player, you are fully immersed in VR, but unless we can show the player’s body interacting with their VR environment, the 2D stream audience is missing out. And that’s how we got started — we wanted to level up the VR spectator experience.”
Doom continues: “Our mission at LIV is to connect Game Developers, Streamers and Audiences to create the very best VR spectator experiences. We are now in full swing, with hundreds of VR games integrated, (including from leading developers like Beat Games, Cloudhead Games and Survios), thousands of VR streamers (like Ragesaq and VROasis) and billions of views to date of LIV-powered game streams on Twitch, Mixer, YouTube etc.
“Our next releases will add dynamic lighting, progression systems and other cool features as the LIV Play platform becomes a massive scale MMO for live gaming spectator-ship. We are obsessed with creating shared hybrid game experiences where audiences play an integral role in the success of the streamer’s game. We’re super pleased to bring in investors like Hiro, Credo and Seedcamp who share our vision of the future”
Luke Alvarez, Managing Partner of Hiro, said: “Hiro is excited to be investing in LIV as our Fund’s second deal and as our first in Esports/Streaming. Doom and his team are super smart, passionate gamers and streamers, living and breathing in the Mixed Reality world which they are empowering with LIV. While the VR market is still small, the streaming audience is huge.
“At Hiro, we believe in Digital to Real World Convergence and we like tech that brings these worlds together, getting people out of their seats in creative communities. LIV delivers on these values and our team is looking forward to working with Doom and team as they take LIV into the future.”
Ondrej Bartos, Partner at Credo Ventures, said: “VR has been a promising space for quite a while, and we believe it is exactly the kind of tech that LIV is bringing that will be vital to unlock the potential of the market. We at Credo are also big believers in founder market fit which in this case definitely is there – Doom and his team are bringing a solution that they as gamers and streamers needed, and as the current uptake shows they were not alone. We don’t see too many teams as passionate, experienced and competent as LIV.”
Central Europe
Evoplay enters Czech market with exclusive Fortuna collaboration
Evoplay, the award-winning game development studio, has made its debut in the Czech Republic through an exclusive collaboration with leading operator Fortuna.
As part of the agreement, 39 of Evoplay’s top-performing games, including popular titles like Penalty Shoot-out and The Greatest Catch, are now available to Fortuna customers in the Central European country.
The collaboration not only introduces Evoplay’s diverse portfolio to the Czech market but also solidifies the company’s commitment to expanding in key territories.
Fortuna, a Fortuna Entertainment Group (FEG) brand, is a prominent online casino operator in the Czech market, and the partnership offers Evoplay a solid platform to reach more local players, supporting both companies’ growth objectives.
The strategic move marks a significant milestone for Evoplay, as it becomes the studio’s inaugural partnership in the market with plans for further expansion.
Ihor Zarechnyi, CBDO at Evoplay, said: “Breaking into the Czech market with an exclusive partner like Fortuna underscores our strategic vision for regulated markets. We’re thrilled to bring our diverse content offering to Czech players and are confident this collaboration will yield outstanding results.”
Myke Foster, Group Head of Commercial Gaming Operations at FEG, said: “This partnership reflects our commitment to delivering best-in-class entertainment and exceptional gaming experiences to all FEG customers, with Evoplay providing a broad content portfolio proven with players around the globe.”
“We are thrilled to be the first operator to take Evoplay’s titles live in the Czech market, and we anticipate a new level of engagement among our local audience.”
Central Europe
Amusnet Partners with Kajot Intacto
Amusnet proudly announces its strategic partnership with Kajot Intacto, a prominent Central and Eastern European gaming market operator. This collaboration aims to enhance players’ gaming experience by combining Amusnet’s cutting-edge offerings and diverse game portfolio with Kajot Intacto’s established market presence and expertise.
“At Amusnet, our focus is on enhancing player engagement and satisfaction, and our partnership with Kajot Intacto exemplifies this dedication. By utilizing the operator’s established market presence, we can effectively introduce our diverse portfolio of games to a wider audience in Slovakia. As we begin this collaborative journey, we are committed to evolving our offerings and remaining at the forefront of market trends, ensuring we meet the needs of players now and into the future,” said Irina Rusimova, Chief Commercial Officer at Amusnet.
“We are pleased to announce the addition of Amusnet as a valued game provider for our players. Renowned for its classic games enhanced with innovative features, Amusnet aligns perfectly with our commitment to delivering quality gaming experiences. Notably, the most popular game at Kajot Intacto is 100 Burning Hot, which exemplifies Amusnet’s signature style and underscores our dedication to offering engaging content to our player base,” said André Kruf, Sales Director at Kajot Intacto.
On Kajot Intacto’s platform, Slovak players can find some of Amusnet’s top-performing games, such as Hot Deco, 20 Golden Coins, Great 27, 100 Power Hot, Extra Crown, 100 Super Hot, 100 Burning Hot, Aztec Forest, Fruits & Gold, 20 Hot Blast and other top-notch titles like Secrets of Sherwood, Candy Palace, and Drops of Water.
Central Europe
NOVOMATIC builds the Group’s largest photovoltaic system in Lower Austria
NOVOMATIC has underscored its clear commitment to sustainability by installing the Group’s largest photovoltaic system. More than 4,600 solar panels have been installed on the roof of the headquarters in Lower Austria, covering a total area of 20,000 m2 and ceremoniously commissioned in the presence of Lower Austrian Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner, NOVOMATIC’s Executive Board and the mayor of Gumpoldskirchen, Ferdinand Köck.
The PV system, with a size equivalent to three football pitches, will produce around two million kilowatt-hours of electricity every year, thereby enabling the company to meet a substantial portion of this location’s annual energy needs. In addition to being used in the offices and production facilities, this green electricity will also find its way into the company’s dedicated charging stations for its fleet of e-vehicles. It is a similar situation with international subsidiaries in countries such as Germany, Italy, Spain, Romania, North Macedonia, Bosnia, Poland, South Africa and Australia, which are already meeting substantial portions of their electricity needs from dedicated PV systems.
State Governor of Lower Austria, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, emphasizes “Lower Austria is a pioneer in efforts to develop the use of wind energy and photovoltaics. Half of all the wind power produced in Austria and a quarter of all the country’s photovoltaic electricity already comes from Lower Austria today. We can do this because many companies do their bit to ensure the green and sustainable future of the state’s economic engine, investing in the development of renewable energy sources. Thank you for this investment and the trust placed in the economic hub that is Lower Austria.”
“The completion of the Group’s largest photovoltaic plant is not just a key milestone in the sustainability strategy of NOVOMATIC AG, but it also means we have sent a clear signal of our intentions to foster a strong and efficient energy future. After all, it is only by taking responsibility that business success can be guaranteed in the long term,” says the Executive Board of the NOVOMATIC AG Group.
Installing the new PV system on already built-up areas helps NOVOMATIC to consistently reduce its carbon footprint, and enabling it now to save more than 1,100 tons of CO2 emissions every year, the equivalent of 90,500 trees compensating for CO2. The concept of “Going Green” is firmly anchored in the company’s comprehensive ESG program as Europe’s leading gaming technology group. In addition to its work to expand the use of photovoltaics across the Group, the company is also focusing its attention on monitoring resources and expanding e-mobility, all with a view to permanently cutting international CO2 emissions.
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