Tribe Gaming raises $1.04 million from celebrity athletes to expand its mobile esports business

Tribe Gaming has raised $1.04 million to expand its mobile esports teams and media business.

The Austin, Texas-based company has courted celebrities, and investors in the deal include Gordon Hayward of the NBA’s Boston Celtics, Kristian Segerstrale (CEO of Super Evil Megacorp), Claudio Castagnoli (Cesaro) of the WWE, and angel investor Victor Krahn.

Patrick “Chief Pat” Carney and Jonathan “DonJon” Sakoucky founded Tribe Gaming in 2017 to help drive the growth of mobile media, entertainment, and esports. Carney is an esports advocate and mobile gaming content creator, while Sakoucky is one of the first mobile esports organizers, advocates, and content creators.

Analytics firm Newzoo recently estimated that the mobile games market will be worth $76.1 billion in 2020 and that mobile will be the largest segment of the games market overall, accounting for 47.4%.

Tribe said it is one of the few organizations that grew organically from within the community and remains completely mobile-focused today, with a mission to unify content creators, pro players, and fans across mobile gaming.

As Tribe’s investment partners, celebrity athletes and fan icons Hayward and Cesaro plan to be active members of the Tribe and the mobile gaming community, and produce content alongside Tribe’s creators to address the community that they feel at home in.

The company represents some of the biggest names in mobile content and talented players in esports. Tribe has tried to create a powerhouse of creators, and so far they have collectively garnered more than 15 million subscribers and 67 million monthly views on YouTube alone, and Tribe’s esports teams compete in five major mobile titles.