Ever since the favorable verdict by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Dream11 has seen significant growths on all fronts. They have continued with their partnership with the former Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni this year as well to add more credibility to their platform. Now, with Steadview Capital’s investment, Dream11 has entered the big league of companies, the Unicorn League! For those of you who do not know, the Unicorn League is the league of privately owned consumer and technologies ventures that are valued at $1 Billion or more. This is huge in the sense that it is the first time that a gaming company from India has crossed this mark in the international market.
What led to this development is when three of the initial investors- Kalaari Capital, Multiples Alternate Asset Management and Think investments decided to sell some of their stakes after FY 2018, according to reliable sources. The Hong Kong and London based investment group, Steadfast Capital, investing in the Indian-origin company did not come as a surprise, as they have been investing heavily in the Indian market off late.
With the $ 60 Million investment, Dream 11 is the third company Steadview Capital has invested in the recent past (last four months) after their $ 74 million investment in Ola, the online cab services giant, and their $ 50 million investment in the on-demand services provider, UrbanClap. A huge investment group like Steadview backing Dream 11 adds more credibility to the app, which at times gets mistaken for being a gambling app.
Ravi Mehta, the managing director of Steadview Capital, said that the company believes in Dream 11 to be the biggest sports based company in India in the near future. He also said that Dream11’s growth, dominance in the market and engagement metrics made it an easy decision for the company to invest in the fantasy sports company.
Harsh Jain, the co-founder of Dream 11 confirmed the developments but did not give away too many details about the money involved or other such parameters. He is happy with the faith shown in the fantasy sports app from investors across the world and is thinking of using such investments in the right way to garner more users. Jain’s target is to hit 100 million users by the end of the year and take an unprecedented lead in the market.
Dream 11 is just coming out from a huge run of success with FY 2018 ending with a 260% rise in their revenue, according to regulatory filings. Their revenue stood at ₹228.4 crores while the loss incurred was just ₹ 65 crores. Their valuation stood at $ 500 million in April 2018 and to double that in less than a year is no small feat. The 2019 IPL has been a huge boost for them with millions of new users joining the fantasy sports community. In addition to that, with 2019 being a Cricket World Cup year, Dream 11 is sure to see a huge increase in the number of users this year to an already existing user count of 50 million, according to the company.
