India’s leading fantasy sports platform Dream11’s parent company Dream Sports has raised $400 million in their latest funding round. Post this funding, Dream11’s valuation has nearly reached to $5 billion.
The secondary investment was led by Netflix and Airbnb investor TCV who invested for the first time, along with D1 Capital Partners and Falcon Edge. The round also saw participation from existing investors like Tiger Global, ChrysCapital, TPG Growth, Steadview Capital and Footpath Ventures. Gopi Vaddi, General Partner at TCV, explained about the growing importance of fantasy sports with a large fan base.
“Dream Sports is serving this community with a highly innovative product offering. We are inspired by what Harsh, Bhavit and the Dream Sports team have built, and we look forward to partnering with them.”
This development comes six months after the company was able to raise a $225 million funding round led by Tiger Global Management, TPG Tech Adjacencies (TTAD), ChrysCapital, and Footpath Venture that totaled a valuation of nearly $2.5 billion, which now stands at somewhere around $5 billion. Dream11’s latest valuation brings it to the league of India’s most valued firms including Paytm ($16 billion), BYJU’S ($12 billion), OYO ($9 billion), Zomato ($5 billion).
Founded by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, Dream Sports is located in Mumbai and employs close to 600 people. The thirteen-year-old startup, that was the title sponsor of last year’s Indian Premier League, has also credited its users to their current position. The online platform recently hit a milestone of having 100 million users, a first for fantasy gaming in India, with this being the single largest investment in the Indian online gaming ecosystem with an apparent growth potential. Jain believes that the new influx of investment will benefit Indian start-up ecosystem.
“This is a huge vote of confidence to the Indian start-up ecosystem. We have created the Fantasy Sports category in India to drive digital engagement to real-life sporting events and bring fans closer to the sport they love. We are proud to continually contribute to the overall expansion of the Indian sports ecosystem.”