Mobile Game Platform Skillz Going Public At $3.5B Valuation

Skillz, a mobile games platform commonly used to connect players in tournaments, announced its plans to go public at an expected equity valuation of $3.5 billion.

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Founded in 2012, the company is going public through a merger with Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: FEAC), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Skillz’s announcement comes amid a broad rise in VC-funded tech companies going public through SPAC combinations, a strategy that allows them to sidestep some of the costs and waiting periods associated with a traditional IPO.

San Francisco-based Skillz anticipates that in 2020, its platform will be used in more than 2 billion casual esports tournaments and facilitate $1.6 billion in paid entry fees for games. The company says its proposed $3.5 billion initial valuation is equal to 6.3 times projected 2022 revenues.

Per Crunchbase data, Skillz previously raised at least $132.6 million in known venture funding from at least a dozen investors.

Flying Eagle Acquisition, meanwhile, is a $690 million special purpose acquisition company founded by Harry E. Sloan, Jeff Sagansky, Eli Baker and Alan Mnuchin (brother of U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin).

Illustration: Li-Anne Dias