MENA Gaming Streamer Rawa.tv Acquired by Dutch Platform Medal

Dubai-based gameplay live streaming platform, Rawa.tv, has been acquired by Dutch gaming content and clip-sharing platform, Medal.tv.

Since its launch in 2018, Rawa.tv has been showcasing local gamers through crowdsourced streaming content. Its MENA-focused approach, well-connected local team, and ability to tap into a multi-billion dollar Gaming and E-Sports industry globally were key to its acquisition. During two funding rounds, Rawa.tv had raised over $800,000.

The acquisition will involve Rawa.tv dedicating its technical stack to help build a live streaming feature for Medal.tv with the goal of integrating Rawa.tv’s audience and user base onto the US platform. Medal.tv is set to launch a beta version of the streaming feature to a handful of seasoned and well-known content creators.

Commenting on the new partnership, Rawa.tv Co-founder Eric Husny said “this acquisition is a testament to the growing strength of the Arab gaming market, and the increased interest of foreign investors in the region.”

“By integrating Rawa.tv's technical stack, Medal.tv will also be able to further develop their offering to the 1M+ creators that use the clip-sharing platform, opening new monetisation avenues and new ways to engage their community.”

Meanwhile, fundamental to Medal.tv’s methodology and model is the optimisation of algorithms targeting its desired audience. Pim De Witte, Co-founder and CEO of Medal.tv, elucidates on the algorithm-based approach: “We only succeed if our algorithm is great at matching viewers on Medal exactly with the content they love to pay for.”

He elaborated by saying that “if there are 100 people who would check out your channel and leave, and 10 who would subscribe, we'll focus on referring the 10 who will subscribe with our content algorithm.”

Medal.tv announced it will remain committed to serving the gaming community with the new acquisition, as opposed to expanding into non-gaming content.