E-sports startup Bigpicture Interactive in talks to raise over $9 mn

South Korea-based e-sports startup Bigpicture Interactive Corp. is currently in talks with various venture capital firms to raise over 10 billion won ($9 million), according to the VC industry on May 14. The company's enterprise value is expected to top 60 billion won.

According to industry sources, the company's previous investors, alongside new firms, have expressed intent to participate in the funding.

Since its inception, Bigpicture has raised a total of around 13.2 billion won ($12 million) from investors including Smilegate Investment, Hana Ventures, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Magna Investment and the US-based VC firm DEV.

"Bigpicture is in the limelight thanks to the rapidly growing e-sports market," said a VC industry official, adding that the funding is expected to wrap up early.

The e-sports company was founded in 2015 by its chief executive Song Kwang-jun and chief financial officer Lee Il-woo, who had previously headed the world's largest game data platform, OP.GG.

The company initially launched under the name "GameCoach," before it was rebranded in 2017. Bigpicture's core operations included offering e-sports training programs to foster professional gamers.

Gradually, the company expanded its operations across the entire e-sports industry. Now, it manages e-sports teams and hosts online tournaments in collaboration with game giants such as Riot Games, Krafton and Nexon, as well as universities and large companies.

The company’s e-sports platform, Level Up GG, has hosted over 10,000 tournaments as of last year.

In 2019, the company acquired an event agency, MSTORM, to boost its media and content-related operations. In the same year, the company logged over 11 billion won in revenue.


Write to Jong-woo Kim at jongwoo@hankyung.com
Danbee Lee edited this article.