Azarus has raised $4 million in funding to bring its trivia game overlay to games like League of Legends.
According to CEO Alex Casassovici in an interview with GamesBeat, the San Francisco company is developing a platform that gamifies live streams of games like League of Legends. During live streams of League of Legends gameplay, an influencer using the overlay can engage fans with a relevant trivia game.
The extended seed round was led by existing investors Galaxy Digital, Animoca Brands, and Kleiner Perkins to bring Azarus to more games and streams.
During the livestreams of their favorite content creators, LoL fans will be challenged to answer trivia questions of Azarus Challenges about multiplayer games, testing their attention to what has been happening in the streamed game and making predictions about what could happen next. The company has seen anywhere from 40% to 90% engagement with the game, depending on the measurement.
The funds will be used by Azarus to expand to the top 10 Twitch games and grow its fan-based economy. The new League of Legends trivia game is the first in a series of games set to debut in 2022. This new round also includes Gaingels, Red Beard Ventures, and angel investors Mike Verdu (Netflix), Bernard Kim (Zynga), and Kun Gao (Crunchyroll).
The seed round will also be used to boost the number of streamer and esports partnership opportunities. Azarus is partnering with prominent League of Legends streamers such as Caedrel, CookieLoLxx, IMLS, lol-nemesis, and Tarzaned as part of the launch of the League of Legends trivia game, with more League streamers coming.
These new collaborations will allow tens of millions of viewers to play Azarus and earn points that can be redeemed in the Azarus Store, which has over 25,000 digital rewards, including Riot Points and other League-themed content.
Viewers who want to play can find live Azarus streams on azarus.io, and streamers who want to learn more about the game can do so here.
Rainbow Six Siege was the company’s first game, released in 2019. It was compatible with games like World of Tanks and others. To date, the company has raised $8.4 million and employs 20 people.
According to Casassovici, the company can also create other types of games as overlays.
The company is expanding, with the goal of employing 60 people by the end of the year.