Acadarena

AcadArena is a Philippine startup that builds student gaming and esports communities on high school and college campuses and connects them to competitions, skills programs and career opportunities. Its current product, AcadArena Edu, gamifies extracurricular participation: students earn rewards ("loot") for running campus events, enter competitions, and meet peers around shared hobbies such as gaming and anime.

The company organizes its offering as a set of programs for institutions and student organizations: an Incubator to help students set up clubs where none exist, an Alliance program that accredits clubs into its student club network in exchange for perks, Buffs which supplies loot and freebies for campus events, an Alliance for Teachers professional learning community for moderators and educators, and general consultation on extracurriculars. Earlier coverage describes AcadArena as an esports startup helping student gamers in Southeast Asia compete in international tournaments, providing esports education through programs, modules and access to industry professionals, and offering financial aid and play-to-earn scholarships to help exemplary student gamers graduate.

Founding story

AcadArena was founded in February 2019 by Ariane Lim, Kevin Hoang and Justin Banusing (also rendered Justin Gorriceta-Banusing) as a community initiative supporting esports within the academe, later becoming a technology startup. Banusing has publicly recounted starting his first events-focused company at 16, moving to the United States, and losing his gaming-convention work during the pandemic before setting up AcadArena with Lim and Hoang while still a student. Cofounder Hoang has described the company as building what the founders wished they had as students, in a context where gaming was widely regarded as a waste of time.

Business model

AcadArena works with high school and college student clubs, schools and educators, running programs that accredit and incubate campus gaming clubs, supply rewards and support for campus events, and organize competitions. Its student-facing offering is structured as programs (Incubator, Alliance, Buffs, Alliance for Teachers, and consultations on extracurriculars) rather than paid student subscriptions, with reported activity in commercial partnerships with game publishers and telecommunications companies, and in scholarship and financial-aid provision for student gamers.

Sources do not specify pricing. Reported commercial arrangements include collegiate licensing for Riot Games titles in the Philippines and a partnership with Globe Telecom for campus gaming; funding uses cited include hiring, acquiring play-to-earn assets, product development and strategic partnerships.

Traction

Reported presence in over 500 Philippine colleges reaching about 150,000 students as of December 2021, rising to more than 600 partner schools covering roughly 100,000 students per the May 2022 Forbes profile. It helped establish student gaming and esports clubs at Ateneo, UP Diliman, UST and De La Salle, and more than 50 investors participated in its seed round.

Latest developments

As of the May 2022 Forbes profile, AcadArena had partnered with more than 600 schools covering roughly 100,000 students. Its own site now markets AcadArena Edu, with open applications for its Incubator, Alliance, Buffs and Alliance for Teachers programs; the site's counters for student clubs supported, campus events supported and competition participants render without values.