Live sports social engagement startup Rooter bags Rs 4.5 Cr Pre Series A round

Live-sports social engagement platform Rooter has raised Rs 4.5 crore in its pre-Series A round from a clutch of investors including Khalid Al Tawil, Anjali Malhotra from Aviva, Pranay Nigotiya, and others of integrated incubator platform Venture Catalysts.

The fund will be used to expand its growing user base, offer a multi-lingual experience on apps and launch new web products aimed at mass adoption. Besides, the New Delhi-based aims to expand its operation in the overseas market.

Meanwhile, Piyush, the startup’s founder has also told ET that it will raise Series A round on November 12 when it will pitch to Adidas family-backed 2018 leAD Sports Accelerator Program.

The startup aims to raise series A before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. It will allow Rooter to be available in most of the cricket playing nations.

Rooter has recently been chosen amongst the 10 finalists of the 2018 leAD Sports Accelerator Program. More than 402 startups from over 65 countries applied for the 2018 leAD Sports Accelerator Program, including 59 sports startups from India.

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Started in 2016 by Piyush and Akshat Goel, Rooter offers live fantasy game, live match prediction, and peer-to-peer engagement via integration of technology and social gaming.

The platform engages more than half million sports fans across 8 sports: Cricket, Football, Hockey, Tennis, Basketball, Kabaddi, Badminton, and F1.

In March 2017, Rooter had raised an undisclosed seed fund from Intex Technologies. Previously, the sports social engagement app had raised funds from Dhruv Chitgopekar, Prantik Dasgupta and Bollywood actor Boman Irani, who had invested in the company as an angel investor.