AnyBrain (
https://www.anybrain.gg), a start-up co-founded by PhDs and engineers from the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal, world-renowned experts in artificial intelligence and big data processing, raised an investment of 1.0 million euros from Trust eSport (
https://www.trust-esport.com), a venture capital fund dedicated to the financing and the support of innovative companies in Esports and entertainment industries.
AnyBrain, owner of a patented technology based on the analysis of behavioral data from human-computer interactions, develops SaaS solutions for video game studios, allowing seamless player identification, fraud prevention, age control, and fatigue tracking. “After more than 4 years of research and development, we are very proud and excited to open our technology to the global gaming and Esports industry”, said André Pimenta, CEO and co-founder of AnyBrain, whose objective is to provide studios with “solutions that are easy to integrate and compatible with the main game development platforms”, particularly Unreal Engine, Unity, Source and Cry Engine.
AnyBrain is the fifth investment of the Trust eSport VC fund in less than a year. This investment is perfectly aligned with the fund's thesis, which aims to finance innovative projects, based in the European Union, and to make them global champions of this very fast-growing sector. “Several pain points still limit Esports when it comes to online competitions, especially in terms of security and fairness”, adds Matthieu Dallon, Founding Partner of Trust Esport, “the solutions provided by the highly qualified team of Anybrain will quickly become standards and will contribute to the future CSR policies of the major companies of the gaming industry”.
Anybrain, based in Braga, Portugal, employs 10 people and was co-founded by:
- André Pimenta, CEO, PhD engineer from the University of Minho, specialized in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science.
- Serafim Pinto, CTO, MsC engineer from the University of Minho, specialized in Machine Learning and Computer Vision.
- Davide Carneiro, CRO, PhD engineer from the University of Minho, specialized in Data Science and Machine Learning.
- Paulo Novais, PhD, member of the board of directors, full Professor at the University of Minho and president of APPIA (Portuguese Association for Artificial Intelligence).
Hovione Capital (
www.hovionecapital.com), together with EggNEST (
www.eggnest.org), provided the initial seed capital to Anybrain in 2015. “Hovione Capital was the first investor to recognize the extraordinary potential of Anybrain’s technology for non-invasive monitoring of human behavior. Since the beginning, Hovione Capital has worked alongside the founders to bring their technology to market, even co-writing their foundational patents that protect this groundbreaking technology”, says Peter Villax, Chairman of Hovione Capital. “Esports have been growing massively, and in 2019 had a global audience of 443 million people, 12% more than in 2018. The global market for Esports is forecast to exceed $1bn for the first time this year, and this new product from Anybrain has the potential to transform the industry by encouraging positive player behavior”, says Ricardo Perdigão Henriques, CEO of Hovione Capital.
About AnyBrain
Anybrain is an AI start-up that provides security and anti-fraud solutions to the gaming industry to secure online gaming and to make esports fairer.
About Trust eSport
Trust Esport (
http://www.trust-esport.com) is a seed and early-stage venture capital fund dedicated to Esports tech-companies, co-founded by esports pioneer Matthieu Dallon and Fimalac, the investment holding of Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière, with the support of the international groups Webedia, Amaury and FDJ.
About Hovione Capital
Hovione Capital is a Venture Capital firm investing in groundbreaking therapeutics, medtech and digital health startups across Europe. Founded in 2015, Hovione Capital actively manages a portfolio of five companies, three in Portugal and two in the United Kingdom. About EggNEST
