Skillz
Careers at Skillz
Mission
Skillz Inc. strives to provide an eSports competition platform which can be combined with any mobile game, by working with developers to create the future of competitive gaming.
Services
- eSports: Offers the chance for competitive mobile players worldwide to compete in various eSports competitions for cash prizes.
- Live Events: Provides an eSports arena to host live events for streamers, bars, venues, or stadiums.
History
Skillz Inc. was launched in April 2012 by Andrew Paradise, and Casey Chafkin. A year later in April of 2013, the first Skillz platform was launched on Android. Initially offering ten Android titles and game studio partners, the company quickly reached over one million downloads with 100,000 real-money gaming registrations.
Another year passed and in May of 2014 Skillz offered their services on iOS, with over 300 game studios as partners. Since then the company has launched over 150 games on the App Store. The first funding round took place in November of 2012 when $1.3 million was raised during the Seed funding round by Atlas Venture, NextView Ventures, and Mark Jung.
Then in June of 2013 another $8.7 million was raised during the Series A funding round by the same three investors. Later on in September of 2014 $6 million was raised during the Series B funding round with Atlas Venture as the sole investor.
Finally, in September of 2015 Skillz obtained $15 million in funding during another Series B funding round from five investors with David Bonderman as the lead investor. In total the company obtained $31 million in funding from investors. The eSports industry currently rivals the traditional sports industry with over 188 million viewers to date.
With this many viewers the industry is expected to surpass $9-billion in revenue by 2017. Skillz Inc. has hosted over 70 million mobile tournaments, and awards over $2 million in cash prizes to players each month.
