The Arrowhead Innovation Fund has announced an investment in Champria, a startup creating platform that enables gamers, esports players and teams to practice against one another in a data-backed organized environment.
Founder and CEO Zeke Chavez, a University of New Mexico alumnus, said the platform serves as the bridge in esports for new players to find a team, practice, compete and go professional.
Champria has worked with a lead investor from Silicon Valley whose mentorship and connections continue to be of tremendous help; as a New Mexico-based investor, AIF is pleased to support Champria’s New Mexico growth ambitions. Beto Pallares, AIF fund manager, said Champria is making significant progress in a space with continuous growth. Champria also continues to field advisers from top Silicon Valley companies for the different aspects of the company.
“Champria is solving the esports pipeline problem, even though there are millions of potential new gamers, it is extremely difficult to organize practice scrums and form new teams for competitive leagues,” Pallares said.
Chavez said with AIF funding, Champria can expand the development and release of new platform features, including a dedicated esports team rating system and creating player public profiles.
“Currently, teams cannot find reliable practice, which results in teams falling apart and not making it,” Chavez said. “Champria allows players in the world of esports to find teams to join, and those teams to have practice matches organized for them on the platform.”
Champria will offer a player-oriented subscription model that allows players to empower teams of their choosing and grant premium benefits. The platform tracks the data of matches allowing users to utilize Champria for analytics. They can also use the platform to track their scrim partners and the performance of the roster. Champria has set up more than 5,000 matches in the past three months.
The platform already has traction with hundreds of esports organizations across the country in collegiate, high school, and privately organized. Champria has three user segments: players, team captains and organization owners. The organizations are structured to usually have four to five teams on average, and each team fields four to eight players.
For more information on Champria, email zeke@champria.gg or visit https://www.champria.gg.
AIF is a pre-seed and seed fund of $2 million, with investments of $800,000 from New Mexico’s Catalyst Fund, a $20 million “fund of funds” to support New Mexico companies, $500,000 from the NMSU Foundation, and a $300,000 grant through the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s Regional Innovation Strategies program.
AIF is looking for companies with entrepreneurs fully committed to growing and scaling their company and who are seeking between $25,000 and $200,000 in investment toward their total seed round fundraising target.
For more information about AIF, visit www.aifvc.com or contact Carlos Murguia at carlos@aifvc.com.