Skillz was officially founded on March 28, 2012 by a small team working in an attic in Boston, at a time when the term “esports” was virtually unknown. Since then, we’ve been on a journey to shape the future of competition. We’ve come a long way in those 10 years, and have grown from that small attic, to the #1 fastest-growing company in America on the Inc 5000, to the first publicly traded mobile esports platform. 

Some highlights over the last decade include: 

• 2012: 
  • Founded Lookout Gaming – our stealth mode name for Skillz Inc. 
  • Secured seed funding of $500,000
  • Established our first office in Boston, MA
• 2013: 
  • Launched our proprietary platform
  • Secured Series A funding of $9.8 million
  • Established our office in San Francisco, CA

• 2014: 
  • Launched our Skillz loyalty program, called Ticketz
  • Reached $4 million in gross marketplace volume
• 2015:
  • Secured Series B funding of $15 million 
  • Reached $20 million in gross marketplace volume 
• 2016:
  • Launched bracketed tournaments on our platform
  • Moved our Boston team to San Francisco, creating our HQ
• 2017:
  • Recognized as the #1 fastest-growing company on the Inc. 5000
  • Became first esports company named to the CNBC Disruptor 50
  • Secured Series C funding of $16.5 million
  • Reached $100 million in gross marketplace volume

• 2018:
  • Recognized as one of Forbes’ Next Billion-Dollar Companies
  • Named to the Entrepreneur 360
  • Secured Series D funding of $25 million
• 2019:
  • Recognized as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies
  • Secured Series D-1 funding of $25 million 
  • Established our office in Portland, OR
  • Reached $500 million in gross marketplace volume
• 2020:
  • Established our office in Las Vegas, NV
  • Reached $1 billion in gross marketplace volume 
  • Went public on the New York Stock Exchange

• 2021: 
  • Acquired Aarki, establishing ourselves as a truly global company
  • Recognized as one of Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators, 
  • Named to Parity.org’s Best Companies for Women to Advance
  • Awarded San Francisco Business Times’ Best Places to Work in the Bay Area
  • Reached $2 billion in gross marketplace volume 

Now here we are in 2022. We’ve already accomplished big milestones like announcing our new partnership with UFC and the finalists for our NFL Developer Challenge – and it’s only March! 

We wouldn’t be able to celebrate our 10th anniversary without the hard work and dedication of our employees, developer partners, player community, investors, and many more. We’re proud to share each milestone with everyone that has helped us level up along the way. Together, we are building something incredible through our competitive mobile games platform, running billions of esports tournaments for millions of players each year. 

While our technology and team have grown a lot over the years, the mission has remained the same. The Skillz platform enables mobile game studios to create successful businesses, so they can focus on what they do best – building great games. 

Today we celebrate the achievements of the past, but we also set our sights on the possibilities of the future. Back in 2012 the mobile gaming market was $8 billion, today it’s more than $90 billion, and in 2025 it’s projected to exceed $160 billion.

Much like mobile games, Skillz has been on a rapid growth trajectory that’s still in its early days. In the short time that’s passed since we first set out on this ambitious path, we’ve created an innovative platform that provides a better experience for users and enables better monetization for developers.

It’s a massive opportunity and we’re still in the early innings – we can’t wait to show you what that future holds.