Twitch Raises $15 Million Series B Investment Led by Bessemer Venture Partners

Twitch makes major move to expand world-class engineering team –

Accelerates rate of development in live video game streaming movement it created

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Twitch (formerly TwitchTV), the world’s largest video platform and community for gamers, today announced a $15 Million investment led by leading venture capital firm, Bessemer Venture Partners. Alsop Louie Partners and Draper Associates also participated in the round. The investment will accelerate the growth of Twitch’s engineering department to further its already-rapid contribution to the changing world of video games and its community of more than 20 million gamers and spectators.

“Twitch is not just a game changer: they created the game and are creating new experiences for their community. We’re looking forward to them accelerating their lead, and continuing to change the rules as they go.”

Video content and capabilities have become the leading edge of innovation in the video game industry, and an important piece of the ecosystem for publishers, developers, media companies, eSports organizations and individual original content creators. Twitch started the movement and will push the edge further into the future with the help of this round.

“We launched Twitch a little over a year ago, and already we have more than 20 million unique viewers per month. We have also partnered with more than 2,000 incredible broadcasters and have integrated our product with leading game publishers,” said Emmett Shear, CEO of Twitch. “I’m very proud of our accomplishments, but there’s so much more to do. Our current team has put us at the forefront of the live video game streaming movement, and we can now invest aggressively to support our growing community with new ways to stream, watch, and chat.”

Twitch will use the additional investment to continue iterating on its core product, expand its global video delivery infrastructure, enhance its quality of service, and support and grow its partnership network with the world’s largest game publishers and platforms.

“Twitch is exactly the kind of company that we seek for investment,” said Ethan Kurzweil, vice president at Bessemer Venture Partners. “Twitch is not just a game changer: they created the game and are creating new experiences for their community. We’re looking forward to them accelerating their lead, and continuing to change the rules as they go.”

About Twitch

Twitch is the world’s largest video platform and community for gamers. More than 20 million gamers gather every month on Twitch to broadcast, watch and chat about gaming. Twitch’s live and on-demand video platform forms the backbone of a distribution network for leading video game broadcasters including pro players, tournaments, leagues, developers and gaming media organizations. Twitch is leading a revolution in gaming culture, turning gameplay into an immersive social video experience. Learn more at http://twitch.tv.

About Bessemer Venture Partners

Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) is a global venture capital firm with offices in Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Mass., New York, Mumbai and Herzliya, Israel. BVP delivers the broadest platform in venture capital spanning across industries, geographies, generations and stages of company growth. From Staples to Skype, VeriSign to Yelp, LinkedIn to Pinterest, BVP has helped incubate and support companies that have anchored tidal shifts in the economy. More than 100 BVP-funded companies have gone public on exchanges in North America, Europe, and Asia.