Dream11’s Parent Raises $400 Million In Secondary Investment

Dream Sports, the parent of India’s fantasy sports app Dream11, has raised $400 million in secondary funding led by investors TCV, D1 Capital Partners and Falcon Edge.

The fresh investment doubles the company’s valuation to nearly $5 billion in less than a year, a person privy to the development told BloombergQuint on the condition of anonymity. The company had last raised $225 million at a valuation of $2.5 billion in September last year.

Existing investors Tiger Global, ChrysCapital, TPG Growth, Steadview Capital and Footpath Ventures, too, participated in the round. Falcon Edge Capital, co-founded by Navroz Udwadia, invested through Alpha Wave, a venture fund.

This is TCV’s first bet in India, which has previously invested in tech giants like Netflix Inc., Airbnb Inc. and Peloton Interactive Inc..

Founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, Dream11 was one of the first startups in the fantasy gaming space to be able to cash in on India’s love for cricket.

The Mumbai-based fantasy sports platform also runs the fantasy sports platform FanCode, which provides updates on sports, and the merchandising platform Dream X.

Dream11, according to a company statement, is said to have over 100 million users.

“This is a huge vote of confidence to the Indian start-up ecosystem,” Harsh Jain, chief executive officer and co-founder of Dream Sports, was quoted as saying in the statement. “We have created the Fantasy Sports category in India to drive digital engagement to real-life sporting events and bring fans closer to the sport they love.”