Dream11's Parent Raises $400 Mn; Valuation Soars To $5 Bn The latest round of funding has made Dream Sports one of the most valued Indian startups in the league of Paytm, Oyo, Byju's, Zomato
By Debarghya Sil •
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Mumbai-based Dream11's parent company Dream Sports on Wednesday reportedly raised $400 million in its latest funding round, almost doubling its valuation to $5 billion. Dream Sports—which also has brands such as DreamX, DreamSetGo and DreamPay in its portfolio—has raised the latest round of funds led from TCV, D1 Capital Partners and Falcon Edge Capital. Interestingly, this is TCV's first investment in an Indian company. The venture capital firm is known to have made early investments in companies such as Netflix and Airbnb.
Earlier investors of the company such as Tiger Global, ChrysCapital, TPG Growth, Steadview Capital and Footpath Ventures also participated in the round.
It is reported that this is a secondary fund raise, which means some of the early investors of Dream Sports might have made exits with much higher returns and the fund raise doesn't go to the startup itself. The Times Of India reported that Multiple Alternate Asset Management and Kaalari Capital have sold parts of their stakes.
It can't be overlooked that the fantasy sports platform raised the fund at a time when the ODI series between India vs England is in full swing and one of the most popular T20 cricket tournaments, Indian Premier League, is just around the corner, which is said to fetch a considerable amount of revenue to the sporting platform.
The latest funding round has now made Dream Sports as one of the most valued Indian startups in the league of Paytm ($16 bn), Oyo ($9 bn), Byju's ($12 bn) and Zomato ($5 bn), among others.
The startup in September last year raised $225 million led by Tiger Global, TPG Tech Adjacencies, ChrysCapital and Foodpath Ventures, pushing its valuation to $2.5 billion.
Last year, amidst the pandemic, Dream11 replaced Vivo, a Chinese phone manufacturer to become the title sponsor of IPL by paying INR 220 crore, almost 50 per cent of what Vivo was paying for the sponsorship rights. However, this year, Vivo has returned as the title sponsor for the cricket tournament.
