With an aim to expand internationally, Indian gaming and fantasy sports firm Mobile Premier League (MPL) has raised USD 90 million in its latest funding round.
Indian fantasy sports and mobile gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) has raised USD 90 million in the latest funding round that saw its market valuation rise to USD 450 million.
The Series C funding round, a stage in the capital-raising process that often concludes financing, was led by SIG Global, RTP Global and MDI Ventures, along with Pegasus Tech Ventures and existing investors Sequoia India and Go-Ventures and Base Partners.
Founded in 2018 by Sai Srinivas and Shubham Malhotra, the startup has managed to raise USD 130.5 million till date.
“In a short time, MPL has taken the gaming market by storm with our various offerings and partnerships, which have helped us stand out in the industry,” said Sai Srinivas, co-founder and CEO at Mobile Premier League.
MPL’s aim to move beyond Indian borders will be strengthened by this fresh round of investment, according to Srinivas.
The Bengaluru-based startup plans to expand to South Korea, Japan, and North America, the top Esports and gaming regions of the world.
“This latest round of funding will enable us to entertain and connect an even larger audience across India and beyond.
“Our goal, with respect to this fundraise, is to set us up to go to multiple international markets,” he added.
In its two years of existence, MPL has attracted upwards of 60 million users through more than 70 games it offers on its app, including fantasy sports, rummy, poker, chess, ludo, and carrom.
“We’re competing with battle-hardened, decade-old companies with much, much deeper pockets but it’s incredible what the young team has achieved over the past couple of years.
“We signed Virat Kohli when we were a three-month-old company!” tweeted Abhishek Madhavan, SVP of Marketing at Mobile Premier League.
Hard to believe, but it’s only been 2 short years with more twists and turns than a Jeffrey Archer page-turner @PlayMPL 😬🤯 🚀 https://t.co/Egq6PlN9Wh
— Abhishek Madhavan (@AbhishekMadhavn) September 21, 2020
MPL allows game developers to publish their games on the MPL app or sell the games’ licenses to the startup.
Since 15-20 per cent of MPL’s business comes from fantasy sports, it is not listed on the Google Play Store due to Google’s real-money and gambling policies that also saw Paytm First Games being removed from the Play Store last week.
