This is a very secondary fund-raise the place a few of Dream11’s early traders like Multiples Alternate Asset Management and Kalaari Capital have offered elements of their stake with multi-bagger returns however Chinese know-how main Tencent hasn’t offered any of its single-digit holding in what’s now one of many prime-tier startups in India.
In September 2020, Dream11 had carried out a largely secondary funding of $225 million at a valuation of $2.5 billion. In a secondary transaction, new traders purchase shares from current traders and the cash doesn’t go into firm coffers.
Besides new traders like TCV, for which this might be its first India funding, Dream11’s current traders like Tiger Global, ChrysCapital, TPG Growth, Steadview Capital and Footpath Ventures have additionally participated on this spherical. Falcon Edge Capital, co-based by Navroz Udwadia, has invested in Dream 11 via Alpha Wave, which invests in development-stage startups.
Dream11 has hit one other milestone of getting 100 million customers, a primary for a fantasy gaming agency in India, firm founder and CEO Harsh Jain instructed TOI. According to him that is the only largest funding within the Indian on-line gaming ecosystem and an affidavit to its development potential.
“The fact that we are doing only secondaries right now signals two things. One is that we have enough growth capital internally, like good companies should, at this mature stage. Then, we are excited to give our early-stage investors very handsome returns. This will further improve the VC ecosystem in India,” Jain instructed TOI. This, he mentioned, will allow restricted companions, who spend money on VC funds, to take a position extra in new VC funds. Jain, nevertheless, dominated out any plans to launch an preliminary public providing (IPO) any time quickly in contrast to a few of different Indian startups aiming to public in 2021 or 2022.
Avendus Capital was the unique monetary advisor to Dream Sports on the transaction.
The mega-funding spherical comes proper earlier than standard cricketing occasion IPL which is predicted to spice up its income as extra customers interact in fantasy gaming with reside sporting occasions like IPL taking place subsequent month.
“We were hit during the March-June period last year. July onwards, we started coming back to normalcy but even now quite a few tournaments have been canceled. So, we are still 80% (of pre-Covid-19 levels) but fantasy sports now has scaled up to a point where we have real revenue and we have just crossed 100 million users,” Jain added. The firm had round 75 million customers earlier than the pandemic. Dream 11, which was title sponsor of IPL final 12 months, has additionally turned worthwhile, Jain mentioned. He declined to share additional particulars on the identical.
Dream 11’s fund-raise comes amid regulatory uncertainty across the sector the place some states see it as a ‘game of skills’ whereas others are planning tighter regulation as individuals spend actual cash on these platforms. Government suppose-tank Niti Aayog has proposed a nationwide stage tips for the sector together with strategies of organising a self-regulatory physique.
“Any disruption, you’ll have increased scrutiny. For fantasy sports, having been proven by the Supreme Court of India multiple times over as a game of skill and not gambling (money), that’s one of the main pillars (for fantasy sports),” Jain mentioned.
“India is home to the world’s largest and most energetic sports fan base with a dynamic mix that is unique to the subcontinent. Dream Sports is serving this community with a highly innovative product offering,” Gopi Vaddi, basic accomplice, TCV, mentioned in a press release.