Led by Blue Pool Capital and Samsung Ventures, the round was joined by athletes like Thierry Henry, Albert Pujols, and Sabrina Ionescu.
Nex, a technology company specializing in gamifying digital entertainment to help people stay active, announced a $25 million series B funding round Tuesday.
The round was led by Blue Pool Capital and Samsung Ventures and joined by Susquehanna,SparkLabs, sports figures like Thierry Henry, Albert Pujols, and Sabrina Ionescu, and top-level executives from companies like Alchemy, Dapper Labs, OpenDoor, WordPress, and YouTube.
What is Nex? Their stated goal is to “transform activity into play” — and in keeping with their expertise in bringing together consumer tech, artificial intelligence, and gamification together, the company revealed its new Active Arcade app Tuesday containing a catalog of motion-based games.
Critically, Nex doesn’t require a bevy of costly retail technology to get in the game; you just need a camera-enabled device. And once you’ve booted up these games, you won’t need a controller because you are the controller.
“A global pandemic drew even more attention to the already huge and growing problem of more sedentary lifestyles across the world,” said Nex CEO and co-founder David Lee. “We identified the vast whitespace of high-quality entertainment that incorporates physical activity. Having fun while moving is one of the purest definitions of play.”
Along withActive Arcade, Nex is also the maker of HomeCourt, an interactive app for basketball skills training. All told, the company reports users across 200 countries.”
Get on our list for weekly sports business, industry trends, interviews, and more.
sn’t the first featuring an impressive list of athletes and sports organizations. Previously, the NBA, Harris Blitzer Sports Entertainment Ventures, Mark Cuban, Sue Bird, Steve Nash, and Jeremy Lin all invested in the company.
“Unlike the old days, the standard of engagement for active play must be on par with the best video games,” Lee said. “It was obvious to us that accessible motion-based entertainment was the answer to a global need for more fun, physical activity.”
