Dream11, the online fantasy sports platform has been creating a lot of buzz in the news market recently for all the right reasons.
The parent firm of Dream11, Dream Sports, bagged huge investment of $225 million through primary and secondary investments made by Tiger Global Management, TPG Tech Adjacencies, Chrys Capital and Footpath Ventures. They together have bought stake of about 10% in Dream Sports for $225 Million.
As a result, the valuation of the firm which was $1.1 billion in April 19 has now increased to $2.5 billion.
Avendus Capital was the financial advisor to Dream Sports in this investment deal.
Interesting part is that the company has secured this investment riding on the success of Dream11 being announced the new title sponsor of the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). This is being considered as a huge factor in drawing the big moolah from the investors as the IPL soon starts in.
Exit of VIVO as IPL Title Sponsor
Vivo which is a Chinese based smartphone manufacturer was the original official sponsor of IPL but the contract was suspended amid the public backlash on account of ongoing India China border dispute. Dream11 won the title sponsorship after competing with the bids from BYJU’s and Unacademy. The sponsorship amount had been Rs. 222 Crore for being the title sponsor of IPL until December 31,2020.
The Mumbai based company also has Chinese based investor in form of Tencent. Though it is a minority shareholder with less than 15% of the stake.
First Indian Gaming Company to join Unicorn Club
Dream11 which was founded by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Seth in 2008, became the first Indian gaming company to break into the Unicorn Club, the terminology used for those companies which are valued at $1 billion or more. Dream11 today runs fantasy leagues not only for cricket but also across other sports such as football, hockey, basketball, baseball and kabbadi.
Growth
Dream11 itself mentioned in its blog posted in its site in June 2020, that it had increased its user base from few lakhs in 2015 to more than 8 crore users in 2020.
Dream 11’s revenue from operations has jumped from Rs 228 crore in FY 18-19 to Rs. 775 crore in FY 19-20. The increase in the revenue is quite amazing and is like to further increase with the growing user base and bagging of the title sponsorship of IPL. The loss booked has also increased from Rs. 65 crore in FY 18-19 to Rs. 131 crore in FY 19-20.
