Millions of Indians each year form virtual sports teams, pinning their hopes on the players they choose to perform extremely well in real-world matches. If the predictions are correct, users earn money. FanClash, a two-year-old Indian startup, is attempting to bring esports like the hit titles PUBG Mobile, COD, and DOTA 2 into this world of fantasy sports. Investors predict this model and the FanClash team will work, saying on Friday that they have poured $40 million of new funding into the startup. Alpha Wave Global, formerly known as Falcon Edge Capital, led FanClash’s Series B funding round. Sequoia Capital India, Info Edge and Polygon also participated in the round. FanClash previously raised $10.5 million, including a $10 million Series A. As it is popular among cricket and football-themed fantasy sports startups, on FanClash, users compete against each other in various popular titles, including Counter Strike: Go, FreeFire, and League of Legends, selecting their favorite players. and forming invented teams. Tens of millions of Indians watch and play esports. As the appetite for daily fantasy sports grows among fans, startups are increasingly looking to generate multi-billion dollar opportunities. But unlike cricket fans, who can use platforms like Mobile Premier League and Dream11 to earn rewards by making predictions, esports fans who want to monetize their skills and knowledge have not been given this service before, said Richa Singh, co-founder and CEO of FanClash, in an interview with TechCrunch. “We focus only on major esports tournaments. We are not looking for casual games. Our thesis is that the world is seeing the rise of a new type of sport, and when there is a new sport, there will be a data layer and a fantasy layer built on top of it,” she said. “These esports have more followers than cricket, but they lack data and layers of fantasy.” Singh declined to reveal how many customers FanClash has amassed, but said the startup has been growing rapidly since launching the eponymous service early last year, and is clearly the “biggest esports fantasy business in the world.” India”. “Online gaming has more than 300 million users in India and esports has reached a tipping point with more than 100 million Indian viewers,” said Rajan Anandan, managing director of Sequoia India and Southeast Asia, in a statement. “The online gaming market is also monetizing well and is on track to exceed $5 billion in revenue by 2025. Leveraging this opportunity, FanClash is building an exciting new destination for esports fans with a amazing product that its users love.” FanClash sees India as its largest market and is beginning to explore international expansion. It is experimenting in the Philippines, Singh said. “We aspire to be a household name in the global gaming community. On a broader level, our vision is to make the Indian startup ecosystem proud by creating ‘a global digital product from India, to the world’ and we believe we have the right ingredients to become a global leader,” she said. The startup plans to deploy the fresh funds to hire talent and scale the platform. “That’s why we make our news public,” she said in the startup’s inaugural media interview. “Esports has proven to be the next step in the evolution of the gaming industry. This is a global market that still has massive unresolved issues around fantasy and fan engagement,” Anirudh Singh, managing director of Alpha Wave Global, said in a statement. Alpha Wave Global is also one of the biggest sponsors of Dream11. “Using data as a moat, we were very impressed with how FanClash has developed its gaming platform for global markets. The company has also demonstrated its execution strength across international markets, while maintaining high capital efficiency, reflected in industry leading metrics such as LTV/CAC. We are privileged to partner with the team and look forward to helping build a global Esports platform,” he said.
