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Based in Manila, Philippines, AcadArena is a collegiate esports and gaming community platform that organizes student tournaments, educational programs, and web3 initiatives in Southeast Asia. The organization serves a network of over 150,000 students across more than 500 partnered universities, integrating blockchain tokens and decentralized autonomous organizations to gamify campus life. It generates revenue through brand sponsorships, event ticketing, and B2B partnerships while offering play-to-earn scholarships and financial aid to support student gamers. AcadArena operates as the official Philippine collegiate licensee for Riot Games and has secured venture backing from prominent investors including 1KX, Hashed, and Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin. The enterprise has raised $3.5 million in seed funding to expand its digital hub, scale its regional initiatives, and develop new telecom collaborations. AcadArena was founded in 2019 by Justin Banusing, Ariane Lim, and Kevin Hoang.
AcadArena has raised $12.2M across 3 funding rounds.
AcadArena has raised $12.2M in total across 3 funding rounds.
AcadArena has raised $12.2M across 3 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $8.0M Series A in January 2023.
AcadArena has raised $12.2M in total across 3 funding rounds.
AcadArena's investors include Foxmont Capital Partners, Portag3 Ventures, 1k(x), 2045 ventures, Active Capital, Afore Capital, Alpaca VC, Alumni Ventures, Animoca Brands, Aux21 Capital, Bankless Ventures, BITKRAFT Ventures.
AcadArena is a campus gaming platform that gamifies extracurricular activities in the educational sector, primarily targeting students in the Philippines.[1][2][3] It builds a platform where students earn rewards like merchandise and prizes ("buffs") for participating in campus events, weekly tournaments, regional conferences, and nationwide leagues, while building communities and leadership skills.[3] Serving schools, student organizations, and gamers, AcadArena solves the problem of turning gaming hobbies into resume-building experiences, fostering esports communities, event management skills, and career opportunities amid gaming stigmas.[1][3] The company has raised between $5M and $14.15M across funding rounds, with its latest at $450K about two years ago (around 2023), and shows momentum through partnerships like Globe Telecom for events such as CONQuest 2023.[2]
Founded in 2019 in Iloilo City, Philippines, AcadArena emerged to integrate gaming into education's extracurricular side, addressing gaps in student engagement beyond academics.[1][2] Key details on founders are not specified in available sources, but the platform quickly gained traction by partnering with schools and departments, enabling students to compete in esports and build networks.[3] Pivotal early moments include forming the AcadArena Alliance, which transformed gamers into leaders, as evidenced by student testimonials of founding organizations, gaining parental support for gaming, and pursuing careers in esports, tech, medicine, and education.[3] A 2023 partnership with Globe cemented its regional presence in Southeast Asia's campus gaming scene.[2]
AcadArena rides the esports and edutainment wave, blending gaming with education to capitalize on rising youth gaming participation and demand for experiential learning in emerging markets like the Philippines.[2][3] Timing aligns with post-pandemic campus revitalization and Southeast Asia's gaming boom, where market forces like mobile esports growth and corporate sponsorships (e.g., Globe) favor scalable platforms.[2] It influences the ecosystem by normalizing gaming as a leadership tool, challenging gender stigmas, and creating pipelines for talent in games tech and pop culture, potentially expanding to broader skill-building in AI-driven education.[3]
AcadArena is poised to scale its campus model regionally, leveraging funding for tech upgrades like interactive leaderboards or VR events amid esports' projected growth.[2][3] Trends like gamified learning and Web3 rewards could amplify its "hobby-to-career" impact, evolving it into a full edtech-esports hub. As Southeast Asia's student gaming leader, its influence may grow through more enterprise partnerships, tying back to its core mission of achievers from gamers.
