Juked Announces Strategic Partnership with Gaingels and The Mini Fund

Gaingels, a leading diversity and inclusion focused investor, and The Mini Fund join Juked’s growing list of gaming, social, and esports advisors and investors.

LOS ANGELES, CA: Today, Juked, the social platform building a more open and inclusive destination for esports fans, has announced its partnership and strategic investment round led by Gaingels, a leading LGBTQIA+/Allies investment syndicate, and The Mini Fund, an advisory and investment vehicle founded by Eros Resmini, the former CMO at Discord. The round also had participation from Jeremy Terman, owner of the esports franchise Kansas City Pioneers, and John Ebbert, a digital advertising entrepreneur and executive. 

While Juked originally launched its web app in late 2019, its upcoming mobile platform has a new focus: to build a social network for esports that brings fans closer together around the biggest games, teams, and leagues in a more concentrated and inclusive environment. Juked will leverage the connections, experience, and knowledge these investors bring to the table to inform their go to market strategy and app roll-out over the coming months.

“We’ve talked to thousands of esports fans since we originally launched Juked more than two years ago, and found a common theme that people are sick of the low-quality discussion, spam, and toxicity all too prevalent on existing social platforms,” said Ben Goldhaber, CEO of Juked. “For the long-term sustained growth of esports, we need to evolve and become a more inclusive community, and we need to reduce the existing barriers to entry to becoming an esports fan. These are top level goals for Juked.”

Lorenzo Thione, Managing Director of Gaingels, had this to say: “As the largest investor network focused on supporting and investing in the best venture-backed companies that embrace and value diverse leadership, including LGBTQ+, Gaingels is proud of participating in this financing and is resolved on helping Juked in its mission to positively change the culture of gaming and esports to be more open and diverse.” 

As part of the partnership, The Mini Fund's Eros Resmini and Nick Dor have also joined Juked's advisory board and will be working with the team to level up marketing and engineering operations.

Juked’s core feature set includes:

• Curated push notifications and news feed based on a user’s favorite games and teams
• User-generated content (UGC) with a Reddit-like discovery system for trending content
• Esports matches, scores, schedules, and stream embeds
• Breaking news and live esports match discussion threads 
  

Long term, Juked plans to implement a user reputation system and artificial intelligence to reward and encourage positive behavior on the platform.

The Juked app is in closed alpha testing on iOS via Testflight with 500 early-alpha users and supports 6 top esports (VALORANT, CS:GO, Halo, League of Legends, Call of Duty, and Overwatch). Fans who are interested in joining the community and securing their username can request early access now by filling out this alpha request form. 

For press inquiries, please contact press@juked.gg

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