India-based eSports platform developer Mobile Premier League (MPL) has raised $35.5m in a series A round featuring Go-Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of ride hailing platform Go-Jek, BusinessLine reported on Tuesday.
Venture capital firm Sequoia India led the round, which also included Times Internet, the digital media and services subsidiary of media group Bennet, Coleman & Co (BCC), as well as RTP Global, BeeNext, Base Growth and Venture Highway.
Go-Ventures had been reported in December 2018 to be lining up a $30m investment in MPL, which could value the company at around $150m.
MPL operates a mobile gaming platform where players compete in tournaments for cash prizes. It has a user base of 25 million gamers who can select from more than 30 skill-based games covering themes such as Sudoku or cricket in which to compete.
The company had previously received $5m in a late 2017 series A round that was backed by Sequoia Capital and BeeNext.
Sai Srinivas Kiran G, MPL’s co-founder and chief executive, told BusinessLine: “The availability of cheap data and cheap devices combined with huge comfort levels in making online payments will fuel growth for mobile eSports and like with everything else, competitive gaming in India will be mobile first.”