Oct 10, 2019

Esports developer Nerd Street Gamers raises $12 million in funding

Dan Primack, author of Pro Rata

Nerd Street Gamers, a Philadelphia-based developer of local training and competition facilities for esports, raised $12 million in Series A funding.

Why it matters: Esports has been growing ahead of its physical infrastructure, so back-build is needed to protect existing investments — both on the professional and amateur sides.

  • Discount retailer Five Below led and was joined by return backers Comcast, SeventySix Capital and Elevate Capital.

The bottom line: "As part of the deal, Five Below and Nerd Street Gamers will build 3,000-square-foot Localhost spaces connected to select Five Below locations, beginning with a multi-store pilot in 2020. Based on what they learn from the pilot, the companies will determine future rollout plans, which could include 70 or more locations over the next several years," ⁠writes Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat.

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Dan Primack
1 hour ago - Economy & Business

There's little consensus on TikTok's specific national security threat

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

TikTok has become a Rorschach test for how U.S. politicians view China, with little consensus on the specifics of its threat to homeland security.

The big picture: Much of what D.C. fears about TikTok is fear itself, and that's reflected in President Trump's executive order to ban the app by Sept. 20 if it's not sold by parent company ByteDance — alongside another focused on Chinese messaging app WeChat and its parent company Tencent.

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Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, Ursula Perano
1 hour ago - World

U.S. sanctions Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam

Photo: Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

The Treasury Department on Friday placed sanctions on Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, following months of tension as she has allowed continued overreach by Beijing to subvert Hong Kong's autonomy.

Why it matters: It's the toughest sanction yet imposed on China for its destruction of Hong Kong’s relatively free political system.

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Ben Geman
2 hours ago - Energy & Environment

GM's high-stakes electric move

The Cadillac Lyriq. Image courtesy of Cadillac

Cadillac on Thursday unveiled the Lyriq, the luxury brand's first all-electric model and GM's first consumer electric vehicle unveil since the Chevy Bolt several years ago.

Why it matters: It's the first reveal by GM of an electric vehicle that will use the company's new modular platform and Ultium battery system — technologies meant to underpin the 20 electric vehicles that GM plans to launch by 2023.

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