The global advertising platform dedicated to gaming, Anzu has announced $9 million in new funding that will help the commercial growth of the company. Along with this, the funding will also be used to fuel sales and marketing activities to bring Anzu to even more brands willing to enter the AAA video game space through in-game advertising. This will also allow Anzu to remain an independent company while its investors acting as strategic partners.
The official press release details:
The round was co-led by BITKRAFT Ventures and HBSE Ventures, with participation from the world’s largest marketing services organization WPP and Sony Innovation Fund, the investment arm of one of the world’s largest gaming groups and the owner of PlayStation, as well as Alumni Ventures Group, the leading LGBT+ VC Gaingels, iconic baseball team The Chicago Cubs, Goal Ventures, and prominent angel investors Marc Merrill, Co-Founder, Co-Chairman, and former Co-CEO of Riot Games and Dylan Collins, Co-Founder and CEO of SuperAwesome, the industry’s leading kid-safe ad platform recently acquired by Epic Games.
Anzu is known for its state of the art in-game advertisement technology that has helped both the video game developers as well as marketing brands to connect with each other and display ads in video games that are native, creative, and real-time. Anzu’s platform ensures that ads are not too obvious to the player while still retaining their prominent positions in the game to make it look more natural and seamless. With their latest funding powered by some of the most prominent companies in the industry, Anzu will be able to make its platforms even better now both for gamers as well as advertisers.
Different company representatives also commented on Anzu’s latest funding. WPP CEO Mark Read said:
Gaming is one activity that has exploded over the past year and increasingly an important advertising channel. In partnership with Anzu, together with our agencies, we can make it simpler for them to reach the growing audience in the esports and gaming space.
Gen Tsuchikawa, CEO and Chief Investment Officer at Innovation Growth Ventures, Sony Innovation Fund said:
Anzu has been delivering the technology they promised and growing their industry footprint. We are excited to join this funding round and support Anzu, entering a new phase of growth in in-game advertising. The company’s gamer-first attitude will enable developers to access new business models and bring advertisers closer to gamer audiences without disturbing gameplay.
Jens Hilgers, Founding General Partner at BITKRAFT also said:
Since our initial investment, the Anzu team has built the most sophisticated platform to deliver blended in-game advertisement at scale in the higher-end games segment. The impressive line up of game integrations combined with brands executing unique campaigns on the platform has validated Anzu’s market position and technology. We are proud to invest alongside this stellar group of co-investors and look forward to seeing the Anzu team continue to redefine in-game advertisement!
Anzu’s Co-Founder and CEO Itamar Benedy also commented: 
We are proud to have global leaders in advertising, entertainment, gaming, esports, and venture capital invest in Anzu’s next stage of growth. These trailblazers are the perfect combination of strategic partners to help us maintain our dominating position as we enter 2021
Anzu is a global-leader with its Anzu.io in-game advertisement platform. Previously, Anzu announced its partnerships for different brands such as Poster Sticker, Virtuverse, Eek! Games, Axis Games, Veritas Entertainment, Ubisoft, Unfinished Pixel, Tozai Games, Lion Castle, Zula, APB Reloaded, Vivid Games, and Toplitz Productions. Anzu is also the only in-game ad company to receive the highest-level security audit ISO 27001 certification and also announced that a former Blizzard executive has joined Anzu as a Strategic Advisor.
