Zupee Raises $8 million in Series A Funding Led by Matrix Partners
Gurugram-based real-money gaming platform Zupee raised US$8 million (about INR 60.76 crore) in Series A funding round led by Matrix Partners India to expand the platform’s user base.
Other investors that participated in this round of investment include Falcon Edge Capital, WestCap Group, Orios Venture Partners and Smile Group.
The internet investment and advisory company Smile Group had invested $1 million (approx. INR 6.9 crore) in seed funding of Zupee, last year, and also incubated the startup since November 2018.
As per a report in ETtech.com, while commenting on the latest investment, Dilsher Singh Malhi, CEO of Zupee, said that the funds raised will be utilised to not only increase the user base of Zupee, but also to strengthen its technology, team and marketing.
Zupee was founded in May 2018 by IIT Kanpur alumni Dilsher Malhi and Siddhant Saurabh. It runs live trivia and quiz tournaments for real money. As per their website, they serve over 100 topics for quizzes including Bollywood, Hollywood, sports, Math and spelling. They also claim to host over 2000 quiz tournaments in a day and allow quick payouts into PayTM accounts of users. The platform boasts of about 10 lakh users on the website.
Zupee, like many other gaming platforms including online poker, rummy and esports platforms, have witnessed a growth in its user traffic recently as users are stuck at home due to the nation-wise lockdown imposed in the wake of the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, the funding received by the platform at this time to boost its marketing and technical efforts is timely.
Recently, Bengaluru-based HalaplayTechnologies Pvt. Ltd., operator of the fantasy platform Halaplay, also raised INR 2.94 Cr. from Delta Corp’s online gaming subsidiary Gaussian Networks (the company that operates Adda52) and Nazara Technologies. The fantasy platform, unlike Zupee, will use the funds to stay afloat amid postponement and cancellations of Indian Premier League 2020 and other live sports events, on which the platform bases its games.
