Danish government, others invest millions in BLAST

According to a press release, BLAST raised approximately $13.4 million (€12.7 million) in its latest funding round. Investments came from The Export and The Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO), as well as a number of BLAST's internal investors.

BLAST says that the funding will help the organizer's plans to continue growing as they have recently been expanding into several other titles besides Counter-Strike. The company has been working with Fortnite previously, but has now taken a major role in the Rainbow Six Siege competitive scene by becoming a major broadcasting partner and organizer.

This is just one of the next steps for BLAST as they have recently looked for host cities in their 2024 Counter-Strike Global Tour. The organizer has claimed that host cities have seen a €22m economic impact.

As part of the expansion and relative success of BLAST, the Danish government's The Export and The Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) has taken an interest in the company. This is noteworthy as a 2022 article noted that the Danish government already held approximately 20% to 30% of the company through the Danish Growth Fund (Vækstfonden) and faced criticism over their decision to partner with ADGaming and host the BLAST Premier World Finals in Abu Dhabi for three years.

This has seemingly not affected the government's decision to keep invest as Erik Balck Sørensen, Chief Investment Officer at The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark, said in the press release:

Danish esports has shown tremendous growth over the last few years, in the process enhancing its market-leading position in this exciting global market and BLAST has been at the forefront of that progress. We are proud to further support BLAST as they look to continue to build on this impressive work in the future.

In the press release, BLAST CEO Robbie Douek said:

2023 has been a record breaking year for BLAST, we have been able to create incredible esports ecosystems with the world’s biggest game publishers while taking events to iconic locations all around the world. This investment is another important step in our journey, which will allow us to further build on this work and elevate our in-house technology, production and broadcast capabilities as we head towards profitability in 2023. Over the last three years we have doubled our staffbase and increased our revenue by 11 times - we are proud of this progress and are excited at what the future holds for BLAST.

BLAST continues to be one of Counter-Strike's premier tournament organizers and will host the BLAST Showdown events later this month.