The online gaming firm, Dream11 announced on Tuesday more investment by Steadview Capital. The valuation of the company after the second set of investment is over $1 billion making it the first ever Indian online gaming firm to enter the prestigious ‘Unicorn Club.’
Harsh Jain, chief executive and co-founder, Dream11 in a statement, “We are excited to welcome Steadview Capital on board. Our exponential growth over the past few years would not have been possible without the support and trust of our investors and Dreamsters (employees). Providing great returns to our shareholders, whether investors or Dreamsters, is very important to us and further reinforces their belief in Dream11. We will keep working hard and are targeting to end the year with 100 million users.”
The other investors include Kalaari Capital, Think Investments, Multiples Equity and Tencent.
The total user base of this fantasy sports portal is over 50 million as per reports. The growth rate of the user base has been registered at a whopping 230% in three years.
Dream11 was founded by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth and the platform allows users to create virtual teams for cricket, kabaddi, football, among other sports and help them to organise matches based on statistical performance of players in the actual game.
However fantasy gaming due to its association with gambling is illegal in India, there were obstacles and struggles. Its legitimacy was challenged in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The court, however, ruled that fantasy gaming involves skill rather than chance in April last year.
The gaming company has a huge list of endorses in its kitty already like Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni. They have also signed a four-year partnership with the BCCI which starting with IPL 2019.
Apart from IPL, Dream11 has been associated with International Council of Cricket (ICC), Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), Indian Super League (ISL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Caribbean Premier League (CPL), International Hockey Federation (FIH) and Big Bash League (BBL).