India-based daily fantasy sports platform Dream11 has begun talks with investors including telecommunications firm SoftBank’s Vision Fund and media and e-commerce group Naspers to raise up to $500m, Times of India reported on Friday.
Hedge fund manager Tiger Global Management is also in discussions concerning the potential round, which will value the company at $2bn to $2.5bn according to two sources briefed on the matter.
Naspers would participate through corporate venturing unit Naspers Ventures while internet group Tencent, an existing investor in Dream11, is reportedly keen to increase the size of its stake.
Dream11 runs online daily fantasy sports games that enable players to win money by forming imaginary teams for rounds of real-life sporting tournaments. It aims to raise the new funding before the start of the next Indian Premier League cricket season in March 2020, one source said.
The platform had accumulated 50 million users as of February 2019 and aims to double that by the end of the year. It registered more than $1bn of transactions in the year finishing March 2019, up from a target of $650m.
The round is currently likely to consist of $300m of primary investment together with a $200m secondary portion that will allow existing shareholders to sell stock. Naspers was reported last month to be considering a $100m secondary investment in the company.
Dream11 was valued at $1.1bn as of April this year when Steadview Capital bought $60m of shares from investors Think Investments, Kalaari Capital and Multiples Equity. The latter two had both backed a $100m round led by Tencent in September 2018 at a $700m valuation.
