Ready closes $5m Series A investment round

NEW YORK, NY - August 27, 2019 - Ready, the maker of The Ready Games, the world's most active hyper-casual esports tournament platform, announced $5M in funding today to accelerate growth in the hot, competitive hyper-casual gaming market. The round, led by BITKRAFT Esports Ventures, includes participation from new investors Comcast Ventures and Eldridge Industries. Ready will use the new funding to dramatically grow its audience of engaged players.

"The gaming industry often overlooks one of the most significant audiences - women. In the U.S., 65% of women play mobile games, and they represent almost half of the mobile gaming population," said Scott Rupp, a partner with BITKRAFT Esports Ventures. "The Ready Games powered by Ready Maker game development technology has become one of the most prolific mobile developers in the App Store, catering to the rapidly growing audience of female gamers. We believe this team can continue their momentum with this funding and grow a global community of people playing competitive hyper-casual games for cash."

Over the past six months, The Ready Games has produced 130 original game tournaments using its proprietary Ready Maker development platform. This in-house game studio enables The Ready Games to launch three brand new games each week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time (Trailer), providing a vast library of unique and fresh tournaments for casual gamers to compete in.

Players have unlimited practice runs to hone their skills, but only one official run to compete for the prize and move to the top of the leaderboard. The prize money is split among the top 20% of high-scoring players. To date, The Ready Games app is experiencing an incredible 30% month over month subscriber growth.

"With touch-enabled devices everywhere, games are no longer exclusive to 'hardcore' players. There's a huge, untapped market for casual games that can be enjoyed competitively by a diverse audience that does not identify as traditional gamers," said David S. Bennahum, Founder and CEO of Ready. "With our new financing and leading gaming investors joining us, we now have the resources to make our vision of opening up esports to everyone, a reality."

"Ready Games' platform and robust portfolio combined with the team's topical and humorous approach to hyper-casual gaming appeals to a broad audience beyond traditional hardcore gamers, effectively bringing competitive gaming to the mass market," said Kai Bond, Principal at Comcast Ventures.