Esports staple Alexander Garfield, founder of Evil Geniuses and Alliance, unveiled his newest initiative, announcing the league of Popdog, a technology and services company developing products designed to help optimize esports and gaming live streaming for brands, publishers, talent, teams, tournaments, and other stakeholders. Garfield will serve as Founder and CEO of the company, with co-founder that include: former SK Gaming cofounder Andreas Thorstensson, now Popdog’s CTO and CPO; Niles Heron, Popdog’s CSO; and Colin DeShong, Popdog’s CCO.

The org launches with a $9 million Series A funding round led by Makers Fund, with participation by Korea Investment Partners, and features three initial key components: Loaded — a leader in sponsorship sales, creative, and merchandising services for gaming influencers, and NoScope — an enterprise Twitch discovery and analytics solution, are both now part of the Popdog ecosystem. Additionally, the esports division of Catalyst Sports & Media, which was created to be the preeminent advisory firm to businesses seeking to enter and thrive in the esports industry, is also now part of Popdog. Josh Swartz, Co-Founder of Catalyst Sports & Media, will serve as Popdog’s COO.

“We’re building our company around the core belief that esports and gaming video content, born more from technology than any other sports or entertainment verticals we’ve seen, need better technology in order to be properly understood, monetized, and optimized. The industry needs a backend, and our mission is to be that backend by supporting the ecosystem as a whole with a comprehensive offering of technology and services. This funding brings us one step closer to fulfilling that mission,” said Alexander Garfield, Founder and CEO of Popdog. “We’ve already assembled an incredible team of industry leaders, product experts, and esports veterans, and we’re excited to begin rolling out a suite of products that we think will make operating in the space transparent and scalable, as opposed to opaque and speculative.”