Esports and mobile gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL), raised $90 million in Series C funding, led by SIG and early stage tech investor RTP Global, along with MDI Ventures and Pegasus Tech Ventures. Existing investors Sequoia India, Go-Ventures, and Base Partners also participated in this round. The investment brings MPL’s total funding to $130.5 million after previously raising $40.5 million.
MPL has been in advanced discussions with investors to raise capital from as early as January this year, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Between March and now, MPL says it has grown over 4x and claims to be the largest gaming platform in the country currently, having onboarded marquee titles such as World Cricket Championship.
MPL has grown by leaps and bounds through its strategic partnerships, offerings, and a growing user base numbering well over 6 crore users. The platform has recorded over 2 billion cash transactions on the app to date.
This capital will be used to further accelerate MPL’s position in the gaming market, expand its product offering, and grow its team. The funding will also be used towards product development, with a focus on social functions such as live streaming, and audio and video content features. With this, MPL intends to capitalise on the rapidly growing online gaming trend and become the world’s largest gaming, eSports, and content platform.
Since its founding in September 2018, MPL has added over 70 games on its platform, working with over 28 game developers and studios. MPL’s platform model, where game developers can publish their games with ease, opens up a new revenue stream where developers can monetise their game from day 1. As a result, MPL offers a plethora of gaming content to its wide userbase allowing them to choose from among esports, casual, fantasy and arcade game options, the company said in a statement.
Users can play a variety of games and can also create, share and monetise their own content, and connect with friends via live streaming functions. Over the past four months, the number of games played on MPL’s most popular titles has increased by more than 700%, the company claims. In less than two years, MPL has signed Indian Cricket Captain Virat Kohli as its brand ambassador, sponsored two top Indian Premier League (IPL) teams - Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore - and also bagged the presenting sponsorship of reality TV show Bigg Boss, anchored by Bollywood Superstar Salman Khan.
With approximately 300 million gamers, India sits among the top five gaming markets globally. Further, there has already been a boost in online gaming in recent months, as a result of the impact of COVID-19 on society. With physical distancing measures in place, telecommuting becoming the new norm, and physical sporting events remaining limited, eSports and mobile gaming have received a boost, to create an alternate means of keeping audiences engaged at all times.
Speaking about the funding, and MPL’s growth, Sai Srinivas, Co-Founder and CEO at Mobile Premier League, said “In a short time, MPL has taken the gaming market by storm, with our various offerings and partnerships, which have helped us stand out in the industry. This latest round of funding will enable us to entertain and connect an even larger audience across India and beyond. Being able to bring quality technology, competitive spirit and enjoyment to people in such an accessible way is what keeps us excited. The online gaming industry is seeing huge and increasing engagement; with this fresh capital injection being proof of MPL’s potential to lead and transform this space.”