PlayVS Raises $10.5M to Organize Varsity ESports

Breanna De Vera

Breanna de Vera is dot.LA's editorial intern. She is currently a senior at the University of Southern California, studying journalism and English literature. She previously reported for the campus publications The Daily Trojan and Annenberg Media.

PlayVS Raises $10.5M to Organize Varsity ESports
Image from PlayVS

Santa Monica-based PlayVS, a platform that organizes high school esports leagues, raised $10.5 million, SEC filings show.

The injection of money comes just as PlayVS is making a push to expand across all 50 states and diversify their offerings. The two-year old company raised $50 million this summer and with the most recent round, the company's total funding jumped over $100 million.


PlayVS declined to comment on the raise, but a spokeswoman for the company said it's "currently focused on growing its business, partnering with schools and continuing to strengthen its mission."

PlayVS partners with the National Federation of State High School Associations and 23 state associations, where it's recognized as a varsity sport. Students can play competitive team games like Rocket League, a game in which a player drives a car to play soccer, to earn a varsity letter and compete for state championships.

Over 21,000 schools and 143,000 students have registered so far. Like with varsity sports, a faculty member is required to supervise. Students register online under their school team, to compete in two seasons during the academic year, aligned with fall and spring sporting seasons. The cost is $63 for each participating student, $1,024 for 16 players per season.

The platform has seen interest rise as COVID keeps school-aged children at home.

Over the summer, PlayVS added Overwatch to their available games, partnering with the game publisher Activision Blizzard for the first time. The company also partnered with Riot Games and Epic Games, and students can compete in League of Legends or Fortnite.

The esports industry was valued at over $1 billion last year, and is expected to grow 24% annually from 2020 to 2027.

Subscribe to our newsletter to catch every headline.

Starships Were Meant To Fly: Astrolab's New Jeep-Sized Rover Gets a Lift from SpaceX

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
Starships Were Meant To Fly: Astrolab's New Jeep-Sized Rover Gets a Lift from SpaceX
Photo by Samson Amore

This is the web version of dot.LA’s daily newsletter. Sign up to get the latest news on Southern California’s tech, startup and venture capital scene.

Local Los Angeles-area startup Astrolab Inc. has designed a new lunar vehicle called FLEX, short for Flexible Logistics and Exploration Rover. About the size of a Jeep Wrangler, FLEX is designed to move cargo around the surface of the moon on assignment. It’s a bit larger than NASA’s Mars rovers, like Perseverance, but as it’s designed for transport and mobility rather than precision measurement, it can travel much faster, at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour across the lunar surface.

Read moreShow less

Meet the Creator Economy’s Version of LinkedIn

Kristin Snyder

Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.

Meet the Creator Economy’s Version of LinkedIn
Creatorland

This is the web version of dot.LA’s daily newsletter. Sign up to get the latest news on Southern California’s tech, startup and venture capital scene.

LinkedIn hasn’t caught on with Gen Z—in fact, 96% rarely use their existing account.

Considering 25% of young people want to be full-time content creators and most influencers aren’t active on LinkedIn, traditional networking sites aren’t likely to meet these needs.

Enter CreatorLand.

Read moreShow less
https://twitter.com/ksnyder_db

This Week in ‘Raises’: Total Network Services Gains $9M, Autio Secures $5.9M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

This Week in ‘Raises’: Total Network Services Gains $9M, Autio Secures $5.9M
This Week in ‘Raises’:

It has been a slow week in funding, but a local decentralized computing network managed to land $9 million to accelerate deployment of its new product called Universal Communication Identifier (UCID™). Another local company that secured capital included Kevin Costner’s location-based audio storytelling platform and the funding will go toward expanding the app’s content library and expanding into additional regions in the United States.

Read moreShow less
RELATEDEDITOR'S PICKS
LA TECH JOBS
interchangeLA
Trending