Newcastle-based startup company GGWP Academy is making gains in the multi-billion dollar gaming market, which was boosted during the pandemic with people having more time to play video games.
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The company has just received $425,000 in venture capital and start-up accelerator funding.
"COVID created the perfect storm of eyes on screens and boosted gaming, streaming and esports into the mainstream," GGWP chief executive officer Jacqueline "Jax" Garrett said.
Ms Garrett, of Newcastle, said thousands of gamers from across the world [65 per cent were US-based] joined the academy. This followed the company's launch last year as an "e-learning platform" for gamers who want a career in content creation and esports.
GGWP offers education pathways for streamers, esports athletes and content creators. In essence, the academy teaches gamers how to build a brand and make money through esports and other kinds of gaming.
"I'm excited for a world where personal creators are building businesses around their unique strengths, showing off a wealth of diversity in culture, race and gender," Ms Garrett said.
Ms Garrett said the pandemic initially affected the company's fundraising timeline, which took longer than expected. "But it boosted our traction in the market, which brought us better investors."
She said the company received a combined $350,000 from Eleanor Ventures and Scale Investors. It also received $75,000 from Startmate Accelerator.
Eleanor Ventures is a tech investment syndicate that allows angel investors to "easily build diversified startup portfolios".
Scale Investors backs "talented women", helping them "bring their ideas to life".
And the Startmate Accelerator is a community of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Australia and New Zealand. GGWP is also in a partnership with gaming company Logitech.
Ms Garrett said esports saved many traditional sports - such as V8s and Formula One racing - during the pandemic, through collaboration and "providing entertainment and media for sponsorships to go ahead".
She said the Twitch streaming service - which Amazon owns - was "brought to the limelight with major music collaborations and political crossovers".
As well as hosting video game streams and esports tournaments, Twitch is expanding into other types of broadcasts. In the lead up to the US presidential election, popular US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hosted a stream on Twitch.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez raised US$200,000 "in one livestream" for hunger relief programs and to help people facing eviction get legal aid.
A gamer named Mychal "Trihex" Jefferson, a "streamer and speedrunner" with half a million followers, told Wired that Twitch gave Ms Ocasio-Cortez "the spontaneity of live engagement", with no need for the standard political "over-polished rehearsed speech".
Rappers also joined with esport pros to urge people to vote.