Tencent leads $100 mn investment in fantasy sport platform Dream11

As China’s biggest gaming and social media company ramps up it’s India bets amid intensifying pressures at home, a large investment round held by Tencent Holding Ltd in Mumbai-based Dream11 Fantasy Pvt Ltd. 

Mumbai-based fantasy gaming startup Dream11 has raised $100 Mn in a Series D funding round led by world’s fifth largest Chinese Internet conglomerate Tencent.

According to reports, existing investors also invested in the funding round, including venture capital firm Kalaari Capital and private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management. The transaction of the total funding which is slightly higher than $100 million (Rs 720 Crore as per the Indian currency) hasn’t been completed yet.  

The Economic Times, in April has reported that the fantasy sport platform was in process in Tencent raise as much as $100 million at a pre-money valuation of $450-500 million. 

Dreams 11, founded in 2012 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth offers its users fantasy gaming in categories such as cricket, football, kabaddi, and National Basketball Association (NBA).

Talking to CNBC-TV18, Harsh Jain, CEO and Cofounder, Dream11, said, “It’s a great credit to our team, for all the work that they have done, to see the world’s largest gaming company invest in us. Tencent is counting on the fact that we are able to reach our projections and their investment goes towards helping us to that goal. However, it’s a much longer strategic partnership that we are signing on for.” As per the latest funding round the sources claimed that Dream11 has been valued at $750 million.

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Based on their on-field performance while competing with the other fans, Dreams11 fans can create their own team of real-life players from upcoming matches in various sports and score points. The gaming company aims to reach 100 Mn users by 2020. Kalaari Capital, Think Investments, and Multiples Equity are the marquee investors in Dream11. Recently, Dream11 was joined MS Dhoni as its brand ambassador.

Tencent Bullish On Indian Startups 

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Early stage startups in India were eye boomed by Tencent. In segments such as gaming, content, social media, and consumer lending in the country, the company is looking forward to invest $5Mn-$15Mn. Since its invasion in Indian startup ecosystem in 2015, in late-stage startups only hefty sums were inveted by Tencent.

Practo, Hike, Flipkart, and Ola were included in it’s early bets. Among the others, Tencent has also placed its bets on music app Gaana and content aggregator Newsdog. Many big bets in this sector have already been made by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Japan’s Softbank and are continuously scouting for more. There might be possibilities that Tencent’s diversification strategy aims to avoid further collision with these global giants and create an interesting mix in its portfolio.

In 2017, According to a Crunchbase data analysis,  of 70 disclosed investments made by Tencent globally, 36% were directed towards early-stage ventures and 23% towards late-stage ventures while seed-stage funding made up about 3% of the known funding total.

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