Dream11's parent entity scoops up $225 Mn at an estimated valuation of $2.5 Bn

Online fantasy sports platform Dream11’s parent entity, Dream Sports, has secured $225 million in a mix of primary and secondary investment led by Tiger Global Management, TPG Tech Adjacencies, Chrys Capital, and FootPath Ventures. 

The development comes on the backdrop of the announcement of Dream11 as the new title sponsor of the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League.

The fresh capital for the Mumbai-based company has come after a gap of 17 months. In April last year, Steadview Capital picked up a stake in Dream 11 for an estimated $60 million, following which Dream11 became the first sports startup to join the unicorn club.

“We are excited to welcome our new partners, who share our passion for sports and have extensive experience in building highly valuable tech companies in India. As a homegrown Indian company, we are proud to continue adding value to our 10 crore Indian sports fans, investors, employees and the overall sports ecosystem in India,” said Harsh Jain, CEO and co-founder of Dream11 in a statement.

Avendus Capital was the financial advisor to Dream Sports on the transaction.

While the company hasn’t revealed its current valuation, market speculation and recent media reports pegged it at around $2.5 billion, a 2X increase from the previous round. The component of primary and secondary investment couldn’t be ascertained immediately.

Founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Seth, Dream11 allows users to play fantasy games in genres including cricket, football, kabaddi, and basketball. Over the years, Dream11’s association with sports and currently it has partnered with over 19 sports leagues along with 6 Indian Premier League Franchises.

Soon after relaxation in Covid-19-induced lockdown, sporting events have started to kick off in different regions of the world. The upcoming IPL would help online fantasy sports startups such as MPL, HalaPay, MyTeam11, and My11Circle, among others, to bounce-back.

Dream11’s rival Mobile Premier League is also in advanced talks to mop up a $50 million round led by Susquehanna International Group (SIG). Entrackr had exclusively reported about MPL’s potential investment round last week. 

Dream11 is yet to file its financial statements for the year ending March 2020. However, the revenue of the fantasy gaming firm took a leap of 3.5X to Rs 775 crore in FY19 from Rs 224.64 crore in FY18, total expenditure recorded a little over three-fold growth to Rs 935.05 crore from Rs 293.33 crore in FY18. 

Citing data from a Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS) and KPMG 2020 report, a whitepaper released by non-profit organization IndiaTech said that the online fantasy sector operator’s gross revenues stood at over Rs 2,400 crore for the FY20 from Rs 920 crore in FY19.