City-based online gaming startup Mobile Premier League (MPL) has raised a series C funding of $90 million from SIG, RTP Global, and MDI Ventures. This takes overall investments into MPL to $130.5 million.
Existing investors Sequoia India, Go-Ventures, and Base Partners also participated in the round.
MPL had earlier raised $35.5 million in series A investment from Sequoia India, Times Internet, and GoVentures in April 2019.
The $90 million raised by MPL is the second largest investment into a gaming startup this year after $225 million funding raised by Dream Sports, known for fantasy gaming platform, early this month from Tiger Global Management, TPG Tech Adjacencies, ChrysCapital and Footpath Ventures.
Online gaming in India is catching up fast due to a growing smartphone ado and easy access to 4G speeds. Post covid-19, many gaming startups have seen significant growth in terms of new users and time spent by them on their platforms. Many of the users now come from smaller towns.
This has attracted new investments into gaming startups. According to Venture Intelligence, the last double-digit funding in Indian gaming startups in a single quarter was in Q2 2019.
Founded in 2018 by Sai Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra, who also co-founded Creo, MPL is one of the leading real money gaming platforms in India with over 60 million users.
The startup is present in India and Indonesia, with offices in Bengaluru, Jakarta, and Pune. It employs over 300 people as of now.
MPL allows players to compete against each other in online games and win real money. It also has a section on fantasy sports including on the ongoing IPL cricket season. The startup is expecting a huge user turnout during IPL.
The app is available on Android and iOS. While Apple users can download the app from the App Store, Android users can find it on the company’s official website as the app is not listed on Google Play Store due to Google’s policy which doesn’t allow any real money gaming platforms on Play Store.