Telkomsel Innovation Partner Reportedly Involved in EVOS Esports Funding

Telkomsel Innovation Partners (TMI) reportedly involved in the team's series B funding round Esports local "EVOS Esports". This is the initial debut for TMI to invest outside technology service development startups.

DailySocial have tried to contact TMI and EVOS representatives to ask for confirmation, but are still reluctant to comment.

As is well known, EVOS Sports is an organization Esports based in Jakarta which was founded by Ivan Yeo, Hartman Harris, and Wesley Yiu since 2016. Besides Indonesia, EVOS has a team Esports in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. Not only that, EVOS has also entered the content business, merchandising, events, and Head of Talent (KOL) under WHIM Management.

Meanwhile, Telkomsel Innovation Partner is an investment company founded Telkomsel in 2019. The company focuses on investing in the IoT vertical, big data, and the entertainment industry (music, games, and video). The goal is none other than to improve the digital business ecosystem, especially in the telecommunications industry. Some of TMI's portfolios include PrivyID, Qlue, Roambee, Sekolahmu, and TADA.

The community is targeted by new users

EVOS has several times received funding from venture capital, both at home and abroad. Based on the data collected Hybrid, the parent company of EVOS, Attention Holdings Pte. Ltd., raised $12 million in series B funding in October 2020.

The funding round was led by Korea Investment Partners and several other investors, namely Mira Asset Ventures, Woowa Brothers, and IndoGen Capital. Get involved too Insignia Ventures Partners who previously led EVOS' series A funding round in 2019.

According to IndoGen Capital Managing Partner Chandra Firmanto, the fan base Esports in Indonesia is so large that it encourages companies to try this industry. "Team Esports Indonesia will be successful because we have strength in the community. This is also because the number of young people in Indonesia is large and spending they are quite big," he said at the time.

Back again in the context of TMI, actually Telkomsel already have a team Esports itself, namely Dunia Games (DG) Esports. However, referring to the thesis above, and if Telkomsel confirming this investment, there is a chance that the cellular market leader will want to target a wider new market segment.

Telkomsel can expand the share of the telecommunications business by targeting the large community base owned by EVOS. Quotes Kompas.com, Esports Charts data crowns EVOS as a team Esports most popular in Southeast Asia. EVOS' high reputation is reinforced by a total of 6,4 million followers on various social media platforms, namely TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

Other than that, EVOS also has a membership program (membership), both free and paid, released since mid 2020. According to EVOS Esports Co-founder & CEO Ivan Yeo, this program is the company's strategy to win the millennial and gen Z market. EVOS is also known to have collaborated with TikTok to develop business an influencer they.

For your information, report Newzoo mentioned that the industrial value Esports global market is estimated to reach $1,1 billion or Rp. 15,4 trillion in 2020. Meanwhile, the market Esports China is still the largest with a value of $385,1 million, followed by North America at $252,8 million.

In Indonesia, the market mobile esports continues to grow rapidly. Newzoo 2019 data states that as many as 52 million of the total 82 million smartphone users are players mobile game. Income from industry mobile game in Indonesia estimated to contribute $624 million or equivalent to Rp. 8,7 trillion.