INNOVATE® Gaming & Esports

Our mission is simple: to shake the foundations of the gaming industry, one empowered woman at a time by providing a safe space for female gamers to play and showcase their talents. While we’re not the first to recognize the stigma of women in video games, we’re one of the...

Virtual reality is an essential tool for building compassion and expanding awareness about how we relate to failing and learning from those moments....

The Indie Cluster is a platform providing opportunities, resources, and services centered around supporting indie game developers. We focus on quality assurance testing, discoverability, hands-on production, and curating a traveling booth for our games. As our digital future demands more interactive experiences, sustainability is crucial for these small businesses. We’ve...

WHO WE ARE The Varsity Esports Foundation is a global non-profit organization established to offer financial assistance to schools and to provide a pipeline for students to reach their potential through esports. We strive to increase literacy around the esports industry’s positive impact on healthy lifestyles, mental health, community, and...

“At the beginning of this pandemic, during my free time, I started consuming video game streams, and on one of the many channels that Facebook Gaming has, I met again with Jose Vargas, who had just started streaming #Dota2 content from Amsterdam. In the coming months, we understood how big...

With a mantra of ‘Esports for Everyone,’ Aquatik Esports is truly unique and has propelled an abrupt tidal wave of followers, fans, and participants spread across multiple channels and touchpoints across the world. By providing approachable spaces, opportunities, and platforms for amateur competitive gamers, creators, and streamers to launch their...

The world of esports is still young: the community is expanding, business models are fluid, and innovation never stops, as the industry looks to stay fresh and exciting.   Esports BAR is the world’s esports business arena, and our mission is to transform the sport of the digital generation into...

At Dreamcraft, we invest in European tech-driven companies from pre-seed to Series A. We are generalists with a proven track record in iGaming, gaming, esports, D2C, B2B SaaS, and decarbonization. We believe success is created by a team of dreamers and crafters – and we are venture engineers who help...

What does work is the act of providing a reason for why they should come. That is the central theme of Oakwood University’s Entrepreneurship Center, OU Launchpad, and it is why gaming is at the heart of the center’s success. OU Launchpad is structured around ideation and microentrepreneurship. These two...

WHAT INSPIRED THE CREATION OF DRONE CADETS? In 2016 Sgt. Tony Reid, was a corrections officer at Rikers Island, a jail in New York City, working with incarcerated adolescents 16 to 18 years old. For 8 long years, he witnessed first-hand the plight of young men of color who became...

Coalition of Parents in Esports is a 501c3 nonprofit founded by parents of pro esports players and content creators who recognized a need of engaging parents in the growing esports industry so more kids are able to pursue their passions with the support they need....

The Media Indie Exchange (The MIX) is a platform all about celebrating amazing games and the diverse creators who make them. The organization was started by indie developers for indie developers worldwide in order to provide grassroots networking showcase opportunities to help further their success at a time where it...

METRO IS A MULTICULTURAL ESPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION AGENCY, CREATING AND PRODUCING DIGITAL, SOCIAL, MOBILE AND LIVE EVENTS DESIGNED TO ATTRACT, ENGAGE AND UPLIFT A BROAD AND DIVERSE AUDIENCE OF GAMING AND TECHNOLOGY ENTHUSIASTS. A college football player, I don’t come from the world of esports as I only understood...

In February 2019, a mere conversation that I had with a JCSU athletics administrator about the paucity of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that possessed structured on-campus esports programming became the impetus behind my development of a proposal later that day for an esports and gaming academic program. The...

CREATIVE, SUSTAINABLE FUTURESGTR is an interactive accelerator program dedicated to supporting independent studios from all over the world. With the development, publishing and fundraising expertise they need to take their content global and towards a more sustainable business.     The interactive era is upon us. Independent developers all over...

Dynamik Focus was Founded in October 2016 By Aziza Brown. After varying experiences with previous esports teams, and seeing a need for representation and structure in the growing esports space, she partnered with former teammate Devin Harris, and Dynamik Focus was born. Soon after the organization was founded, Dynamik Focus...

The gaming community has always been full of diverse people and communities. However, the developers of games have not always reflected the same diversity. Marginalized people have not been offered many of the same opportunities as their counterparts. It’s time to move across the country, and the only person with...

Founded in 2002 by award-winning game designer and author Jesse Schell, Schell Games is the largest full-service educational and entertainment game development company in the United States. We make experiences across various platforms, specializing in four vertical areas: Health and Wellness, Education, Home Entertainment, and Theme Parks and Museums. In...

HeliconNFT is a new online universe, combining a gaming metaverse with a NFT buying & trading platform that provides real rewards where you can play, mine and earn to become the master of a new market. Ultimately, HeliconNFT bridges the gap between centralised games and decentralized NFTs for a true...

Onward Play is a nationwide game staffing agency specializing in freelance and direct hire. Onward Play’s niche is linking up creative, technical and production talent with incredible game, XR, and esports studios. Onward Play recruits talent for segments like PC, Console, Mobile, VR, AR, XR, esports, toys, casino and tabletop....

A 501(c)3 nonprofit charity dedicated to communities, leaders, and organizations by offering innovative consultant services. In 2018, UKnightedXP, Inc. (UKXP) was like all ventures in the beginning – an idea and a dream. Devastated by hurricane Michael, the Panhandle of Florida was reeling from one of the most devastating category...

For Full Sail University, esports came naturally. Since the school has offered gaming degrees for over 25 years, it came as no surprise when esports culture became widespread among Full Sail’s students. The wildly popular degree programs have made gaming just as prevalent on campus as music or film. And...

This is the story about a company with such potential, it could become a top 10 startup. A bold claim? Sure! Backed by facts? Stay tuned. It has adventure, love, death, and much, much more. It’s the story about a company with a concept so innovative, its creator accurately predicted...

Indie game developers are the heart and soul of the gaming industry, and without them, we wouldn’t have as much innovation as we currently have, and have been enjoying since Pong. With that said, indie game developers are always struggling to create their games because of various reasons, and this...