GameCoach, the company behind Korea’s first professional gaming academy, has received 700 million won (USD $580,000) in investment from HBIC and Mirae Asset Venture Investment.
The company’s GameCoach Academy was launched in April 2015 and lets anyone take courses from pro gamers for titles such as Overwatch, League of Legends, Fifa 3 and Hearthstone. Online gaming can be a daunting experience for new players, especially when you’re up against people who have been playing for years.
The startup aims to help players hone their gaming skills with lessons from experienced and professional gamers. On enrollment, students are tested by going up against a pro, and are then prescribed a curriculum to match their level. Classes can be taken online, or offline at the company’s academy.
A spokesperson for the investment said that the esport market, which Korea plays a major part in, is growing fast – and people are beginning to recognize that gaming is something that people can learn, rather than just do for fun. GameCoach also aims to help students debut as professionals and offers the opportunity to take entrance tests for professional teams.
The company says that it has plans to eventually take its platform global. “Based on the investment from HBIC and Mirae Asset and with esports becoming a part of culture globally, we’ll establish our position in the gaming education market by actively developing our global business,” said GameCoach CEO, Kwang Jun Song.
Aside from its gamer education, the company uploads a huge amount of content to its YouTube channel and other video platforms such as Naver Tvcast. Gameplay and other content is uploaded by a group of contributing gamers, and GameCoach videos currently receive around 100 million views a year.
In 2015, GameCoach won the K Global Startup Grand Prize and was also selected out of 41 startups for China’s ‘The Next Unicorn’ program on CBN. The most recent investment is its second round of funding following seed funding in 2015 from New York venture capital firm Digital Entertainment Venture.
