An esports player at an event wears the logo of gaming hardware company SteelSeries image credit : Flickr/SteelSeries

Caffeine, A social broadcasting startup founded by ex Apple executives whose service launched early this year has now taken on a new $100 million funding round from entertainment giant 21st Century Fox with both companies inking a strategic partnership and pushing the total raised by Caffeine to over $140 million.

This new investment will fund a new studio jointly owned by both firms dubbed Caffeine Studios which will create exclusive live broadcasts focused on esports sports, video game and entertainment for the Caffeine live streaming platform.

As part of this deal, 21st Century Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch will now be joining Caffeine’s board along with renowned investor Ben Horowitz, Greylock’s John Lilly and its CEO Ben Keighran.

Murdoch’s experience in live event and programming stemming from his stints across major entertainment roles will count as a good addition to Caffeine’s content offerings. In addition to Fox, Original investors Greylock and Andressen Horowitz along with other partners are also providing additional investments for Caffeine.

Caffeine has also inked a new partnership with entertainment firm Live Nation with the company bringing weekly live concerts to the platform starting from the 4th quarter of this year. The Palo Alto based company has also hired two industry veterans, Jen Folse and Michelle Wagner from Apple and Evernote respectively with Folse notable for a leadership role at the Apple TV design team.

Folse is taking the position of Vice President of Product at Caffeine while Wagner will hem the position of Senior Vice President of People and Places at the company while managing its human resources, IT and infrastructure.

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