Game streaming platform Loco raises $42 Mn led by Hashed

Game streaming platform Loco has raised $42 million in a Series A round led by Hashed, South Korea’s early-stage venture fund focusing on blockchain and cryptocurrency. Makers Fund, Catamaran Ventures, Krafton, Lumikai, Korea Investment Partners and Hiro Capital also invested in the financing round.

Loco had previously raised $9 million in its seed round led by Krafton, the distributor of PUBG in India. The Mumbai-based startup has raised $51 million to date and as per Entrackr’s sources, it is now valued at around $200 million.

The new investment will accelerate the company’s streaming technology and content initiatives and it will continue investing in the development of the local gaming ecosystem and community, said the company in a statement.

Founded by Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh, Loco features popular games like Clash of Clans, FreeFire and Call of Duty Mobile besides hosting top esports teams and tournaments. The platform houses esports teams like Godlike, XO, Revenant Esports, 8bit, Global Esports, 7Sea esports, Skylightz Gaming and Hyderabad Hydras.

Loco was created as an independent entity from its parent Pocket Aces in 2018. Pocket Aces’ founders Pandita and Suresh lead Loco while its co-founder Aditi Shrivastava lead the former company.

According to the company, it has hosted tournaments in partnership with global publishers like Krafton, Activision, Ubisoft, and Riot Games. The company has also teamed up with global giants like the NBA, Logitech, and Red Bull to run India-focused esports programs.

While Loco has refrained to give any numbers around traction, it claims that the active viewers base has scaled up by 15X with monthly active streamers jumping 5X since January 2021.

This is probably the first investment by Hashed in any Indian startup in 2022. The firm had backed social audio startup Headfone and skill-based real-money gaming startup GetMega in January and September last year. Entrackr had exclusively reported about GetMega’s funding.