Gaming & esports startups in Los Angeles

Thomas 'Temperrr' Oliveira, Richard 'Banks' Bengston & others

Founded 2010 as a CoD trickshot collective, FaZe grew into a leading esports/creator brand and went public via SPAC (NASDAQ: FAZE) in 2022 at a ~$725M valuation. After the stock collapsed, GameSquare acquire...

Brandon Beck & Marc Merrill

Founded 2006, Riot is the global HQ (League of Legends, VALORANT, TFT, Wild Rift) and anchors LA as a games hub. In 2024 it bought its five-building West LA campus (~288,000 sq ft) from Hudson Pacific for $1...

Akash Nigam & Evan Rosenbaum

Founded 2017, Genies builds AI-powered 'Smart Avatars' plus SDKs/dev tools for games, apps and virtual experiences, and made its name creating celebrity avatars (Rihanna, Justin Bieber). Its 2021 Series C ra...

John Linden & Rudy Koch

Founded 2018 by ex-Activision executives, Mythical builds Web3/blockchain games and the Mythical Platform. Its 2022 Series C hit ~$150M at a $1.25B valuation (a16z, NFL's 32 Equity, Michael Jordan among back...

Walter Driver & Javier Ferreira

Founded 2011, Scopely is the world's #2 (and US #1) mobile games maker by revenue, behind Monopoly Go!, Marvel Strike Force, Star Trek Fleet Command and Stumble Guys. Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group (PIF) a...

Matthew 'Nadeshot' Haag

Founded 2017 by former OpTic CoD captain Nadeshot, 100 Thieves is an LA esports org and lifestyle brand, backed early by Dan Gilbert and later Drake/Scooter Braun. Fields franchised teams in VALORANT (VCT), ...

Jack Etienne & Paullie Etienne

Founded 2013 as a League of Legends team, Cloud9 is a Santa Monica-HQ'd esports org competing across LoL, VALORANT, CS2 and more, backed by investors including Valor Equity Partners. It has raised multiple v...

Chris DeWolfe, Aber Whitcomb, Colin Digiaro & Josh Yguado

Founded 2010 (formerly SGN) by Myspace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, Jam City is a mobile developer/publisher behind Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Cookie Jam and Disney franchise titles. It acquired Ludia for ...

Andy 'Reginald' Dinh

Founded 2009, TSM is a storied North American esports org headquartered in a 25,000 sq ft, ~$13M+ Playa Vista performance center (billed as one of the largest esports facilities in NA). Forbes valued it at ~...

Andrew Chen & Jonathan Lai (partners)

a16z's games/tech accelerator, Speedrun, is headquartered in Los Angeles and runs 12-week cohorts investing in games and interactive-tech startups (part of a16z's $1.2B+ committed to gaming across two funds)...

Kevin Chou & Kent Wakeford

Founded 2017, Gen.G is a global esports org that opened a ~13,000 sq ft LA HQ in 2019 alongside a $46M raise backed by Will Smith, NEA, Battery Ventures and others. Operates championship teams (notably in Lo...

Peter Levin, Nick Tuosto & Phil Sanderson

Founded 2019 in the Santa Monica area, Griffin is one of the world's largest venture funds focused exclusively on gaming, with ~$1.5B under management. Its debut fund closed at $235M (2019) and Fund II at $7...

Ari Segal (CEO)

Founded 2015, Immortals Gaming Club is an LA-based esports company (HQ on S. Sepulveda) that owns the Immortals and MIBR brands; it previously operated the Los Angeles Valiant (Overwatch League) before the l...

Andy Miller & Mark Mastrov

Founded 2015 by Sacramento Kings co-owners Andy Miller and Mark Mastrov, NRG is an LA esports org that won 2025 world championships in VALORANT and Rocket League. In Dec 2025 its competitive assets were acqu...

Peter Akemann (Amy Hennig studio lead)

Formed 2016 after Skydance Media acquired The Workshop Entertainment, this Santa Monica developer/publisher makes VR and immersive titles including the best-selling The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. Houses...

Nathan Burba & James Iliff

Founded 2013, Survios is one of the leading independent VR game studios (Raw Data was the first VR game to top Steam's global charts). It has raised ~$70M+ over its life (rounds led by Lux Capital and a stra...

Steve Arhancet & Victor Goossens

One of the world's most-titled esports orgs (competing across LoL, Dota 2, CS2, VALORANT and more), Team Liquid is HQ'd in Santa Monica where it runs the Alienware Training Facility. Controlled since 2016 by...

Michael Mumbauer, Taylor Kurosaki & Jacob Minkoff

Launched July 2021 with a $100M investment from Korea's Smilegate, the independent AAA studio was founded by veterans of Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, Infinity Ward and Bungie building a narrative-driven a...

Jenova Chen & Kellee Santiago

Founded 2006 by USC grads Jenova Chen and Kellee Santiago, the indie studio is known for Journey and Sky: Children of the Light (160M+ downloads). In 2022 it raised $160M led by TPG and Sequoia to expand its...

Joe Tung, Areeb Pirani & Michael Evans

Founded 2020 by ex-Riot/Bungie/Blizzard/Valve veterans (CEO Joe Tung was EVP of League of Legends), Theorycraft raised ~$87.5M in seed funding (2021–22) led by NetEase, with NEA, BITKRAFT and Griffin. Its de...