The World of Esports Startups

Following the Women’s World Cup Final this weekend—and in the wake of our recent article explaining our preference for sector groupings and buzzwords over SIC codes—we found ourselves drawn to the world of esports this week.

At Beauhurst, we define esports (electronic sports) as ‘a form of sporting competition using video games where games may be held in person or online but will always refer to video games’. 

In this article, we’ll show you an insight into the sector and spotlight some companies you might want to keep your eye on. 

The esport ecosystem

The UK high-growth esports sector consists of 67 companies in total, of which 46 meet Beauhurst tracking triggers and 21 have exited or died. Though there have been esports companies since the early 2000s, the sector saw the peak of its activity in 2018 with the foundation of 12 new companies in one year alone. Among the currently active esports companies, none have any registered patents. 

Of our eight tracking triggers, the most common trigger is equity raised. Of the high-growth esport companies in our list, we can see that 82% hit this tracking trigger. The second most common tracking trigger that these companies have hit is accelerator attendance. Of those in this list, 27% (that’s 18 companies) have attended an accelerator in their time. Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum, we can reveal there have been no esports academic spinouts and there’s only one grant recipient (Wingman AI Agents) within the sector. 

The highest concentration of esports companies is in London and surrounding areas—accounting for 67% of all companies. Meanwhile, currently, there are no esports companies based in Wales or Northern Ireland. 

Who are the top esports raisers?

Below we’ve ranked the top five companies within this sector by the amount of equity raised to date.