Zupee, a leading Indian online skill-based gaming industry, has announced it has raised USD30 million at a valuation of $500 million in Series B funding round, co-led by Silicon Valley-based WestCap Group and Tomales Bay Capital, with participation from Matrix Partners India and Orios Venture Partners.
The round comes within six months after its Series A round at a $100 million valuation, representing a more than 5x increase in the company’s valuation. With total funds raised now at $49 million, Zupee is backed by some of the best in the industry. The company has an existing user base of over 10 million users.
The new round of funding will be used to enable scaling efforts through expanded product portfolio, deepening market reach and hiring global talent.
Founded in 2018 by graduates of India’s leading institution IIT Kanpur, Dilsher Singh and Siddhant Saurabh, and incubated with funding from Smile Group, Zupee innovates by reengineering time-tested games and enabling them to enhance skill, joy and hope.
The company’s portfolio has innovative gaming formats of multiple popular board games. The flagship gaming app hosts live trivia quiz tournaments and has seen over 250 million gameplays.
Dilsher Singh, Founder and CEO, Zupee said: “Games inherently celebrate the journey and nurture self-expression. That’s what I am committed to building with Zupee – an organisation which enables people anywhere in the world to enhance their intrinsic happiness through games. We innovate to ensure our games provide an intersection between skill and entertainment, enabling our users to earn while they play.
“We thank our investors for believing in our purpose and enabling us to progress on our journey to transforming it to reality. Our journey has just begun. We now have 10 million happy users in India and there are billions more globally we want to touch through our games.”
Laurence A Tosi, Founder and Managing Partner of WestCap, added: “WestCap remains a key strategic investor and operating advisor to Zupee and we are increasing our interest again as part of this most recent funding round.
“Dilsher and his world-class team have innovated some of the most compelling and widely used mobile games of skill in India. The enduring appeal of the Zupee games brings engagement, enjoyment and empowerment to the widest audience of any gaming platform in the market. This funding will enable the Zupee team to invest further in innovation, expand its suite of games and aggressively pursue international expansion.”
According to industry reports, the global online gaming industry is estimated to grow from USD98 billion in 2020 to USD272 billion in 2030. In 2020, the industry saw over 53 billion mobile gaming downloads worldwide, of which 17% came from India. By the end of this year itself, there will be 2.9 billion players worldwide.
