Dream11 scores $400 Mn in a secondary round

Dream Sports, the parent entity of fantasy sports platform Dream11, has scooped up $400 million in a secondary round led by TCV, D1 Capital Partners and Falcon Edge.  

This also marks US-based growth equity firm TCV’s maiden investment in India which has backed global tech giants like Netflix, Airbnb, Sportradar and Peloton.

According to Dream11, the round also saw participation from existing investors like Tiger Global, ChrysCapital, TPG Growth, Steadview Capital and Footpath Ventures. Falcon Edge Capital, co-founded by Navroz Udwadia, invested via Alpha Wave Incubation or AWI. 

The development comes six months after its $225 million financing round mix of primary and secondary investment. The round led by Tiger Global Management, TPG Tech Adjacencies, Chrys Capital, and FootPath Ventures had valued the company at around $2.5 billion.

While the Harsh Jain-led company did not reveal its current valuation, the fresh round is expected to have doubled its valuation to $5 billion.

“This is a huge vote of confidence to the Indian start-up ecosystem. We have created the Fantasy Sports category in India to drive digital engagement to real-life sporting events and bring fans closer to the sport they love. We are proud to continually contribute to the overall expansion of the Indian sports ecosystem,” said Jain, CEO and co-founder of Dream Sports in a statement.

Founded by Jain and Bhavit Sheth, Dream Sports is located in Mumbai and employs close to 600 people. The thirteen-year-old company allows users to play fantasy games in genres including cricket, football, kabaddi, and basketball.

Fantasy gaming space has been attracting the attention of a large and diverse set of investors. Mobile Premier League, another fantasy sports platform, had raised $95 million in its Series D round. 

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.