Exclusive: MPL scores $75 Mn round led by SIG Global

After edtech, online gaming companies have been witnessing significant interest from venture capitalists and strategic investors. Within weeks of WinZO’s Series B round, Dream11 closed a massive funding round. Now, Mobile Premier League or MPL has raised $75 million in fresh financing led by SIG Global India Fund.

Adding this round, MPL has raised over $110 million across three institutional rounds. According to Entrackr’s sources, the company has been valued at $340-350 million in the fresh financing round. In April 2019, it had raised $35.5 million led by Sequoia Capital, Go Ventures and Times Internet.

Regulatory filings in Singapore show that in this round, MPL has raised $34 million from SIG Global while Sequoia Capital and RTP Global have invested $11.5 and $12.5 million respectively in MPL’s holding company M League. GV Games has put in $9 million, followed by MDI Ventures and CE Ventures’ with $5 million and $2 million.

RTPOther existing investors including Beenext, Bae Growth and PennBrook Capital also participated. Early this month, Entrackr had exclusively reported about SIG Global leading a fresh round in MPL.

The filings also showed that in January 2019, Haresh Chawla, Amrish Rau, Jitendra Gupta, Gaurav Munjal, Pawan Kumar Ongle and Shubham Gupta had also invested in MPL. The fresh round also has a secondary component where SIG Global picked up 110 shares worth $1.24 million from Beenext, PK Ongle, VH Capital, Haresh Chawla, Gupta Shubham. 

Post this allotment, co-founders Sai Srinivas Kiran and Shubham Malhotra are the largest stakeholders in MPL with 34% collective holdings (17% each). Sequoia is the second biggest owner with a 31.48% stake. See pie-chart for the complete shareholding pattern.

Founded in September 2018, MPL works with third-party developers and then publishes their game on the platform where users can participate in skill-based games including cricket, puzzles, chess and crossword to win cash prizes. According to the company, it has grown to over 60 plus games and 6 crore users. 

Besides India, MPL also has a presence in Indonesia.

The fresh round in MPL has come at a time when its rival Dream11 secured a $225 million in a mix of primary and secondary investment from Tiger Global Management, TPG Tech Adjacencies, Chrys Capital and FootPath Ventures. NCR-based WinZo had also raised $18 million in a Series B funding round led by Makers Fund and New York-based Courtside Ventures.

With the Indian Premier League around the corner, Dream11, MPL and other fantasy league focused platforms look set to welcome some cheer as sporting events globally came to a grinding halt between March and August due to the Covid-19 pandemic.