Smile Group invests $1 million in real money quiz startup Zupee

Indipepper Media Private Limited, which operates real money quiz and trivia platform Zupee has received US$1 million (approximately Rs. 6.9 crores) in funding from internet investment and advisory company Smile Group.

As per a report in VCCircle, Zupee, which was founded in May 2018 has been incubated by Smile Group since November 2018. The company stated that the new funds will be used for business growth and to expand its current team of 15 members. The valuation of the startup or the stake that Smile Group will hold post this transaction have not been revealed.

Prior to this investment, Smile Group has partnered and invested in other successful internet startups such as AirBnb, Truly Madly, Scoop Whoop and Fashion & You.

Founded by IIT Kanpur alumni Dilsher Malhi and Siddhant Saurabh, Zupee has seen more than one million downloads till date and has over 1.5 million gameplays in a month on an average.

The game allows users to compete with one another on quiz or trivia questions on any topic ranging from movies to sports to academics. The company currently has questions only in English language but plans to start a Hindi version soon and eventually start the game in 10-12 other regional languages.

The founders of the quiz app state that the reason they decided to start the app was because it has a broad appeal and also offers returns to users on the time spent.