Dream11 Parent Company Secures US$225M Funding, Values Firm at More than US$2.5B

Dream Sports, owner of popular fantasy sports platform Dream11, has secured US$225 million in new funding which gives the company a total value over US$2.5 billion, just over a year since it became a unicorn.

A range of private investors led by Tiger Global Management, TPG Tech Adjacencies, and ChrysCapital lined up to bet on India's rapid rise in online gaming. Footpath Ventures also confirmed they had invested too.

Gross revenue of online fantasy sports operators has nearly tripled to Rs.2,400 Crores in the year ended 31 March 2020 from Rs. 920 Crores in the previous year, according to a FIFS-KPMG 2020 report. A Google-KPMG report predicts that online gaming will become a US$1.1 billion opportunity in India by 2021.

"Dream11 has the IPL title sponsorship and millions of new users in a locked-down India with cheap data. So, this valuation is not surprising, despite the risks of sudden policy and tax changes in the country," said Prasanto K. Roy, a technology policy consultant, quoted in a Livemint article.

With its new valuation, Dream Sports is set to break into the top ten of highest valued unicorns in India. Paytm leads the way with a US$16 billion valuation.