Will Smith invested into Gen.G with a ton of money, the team wrote.

Gen.G is getting 46 million dollars. It’s not just Will Smith that put together this cash – other people include Keisuke Honda (a Japanese footballer – it’s his Dreamers Fund, to be exact), Dennis Wong, Michael Zeisser, and David Roger, and the companies that backed the investment are New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Conductive Ventures, Battery Ventures, Canaan Partners, SVB Capital, and the Stanford University.

Gen.G’s creative and commercial endeavours are helped by Smith and Honda, so Chris Bosh, NBA star-turned-player management advisor, isn’t alone.

It’s important because in Japan, eSports is far from popular, and Gen.G already acquired a world championship title in Heroes of the Storm and PlayerUnknown’s BattleGrounds (recently banned from Nepal). They also launched an all-women Fortnite team helmed by Tina Perez and Madison Mann, and they have a training facility in Seoul, too.

„I am excited that Dreamers Fund, the fund that I co-launched with Will Smith, is now investing in Gen.G. eSports is not yet big in Japan, but we are seeing tremendous growth there and globally, which is very positive. We decided to invest in Gen. G because of their incredible team and grand vision to become a leader in the space.  We truly look forward to working with Gen.G to boost the esports industry around the world,” Honda said.

It’s a good idea, and let’s hope that Japan will be just as successful as South Korea is. (Remember, Starcraft was already widely popular over there ten years ago…)

Source: IGN