MUMBAI: Dream Sports, parent company of fantasy gaming platform Dream11, has made public its corporate venture capital and M&A subsidiary – Dream Capital (DreamCap). The $250 million corporate venture capital (CVC) fund has been mandated to invest in sports, gaming and fitness-tech startups.
DreamCap is looking to invest invest between $1 million and $100 million across stages in startups that have the potential to generate $100 million in revenue within five years of launch.
To date, the platform has assessed over 250 start-ups and invested in eight companies. These include subscription-based sports streaming platform FanCode, DreamGameStudios, a mobile gaming studio, SoStronk, an esports platform for competitive gamers and Elevar, a performance sports footwear and equipment brand.
DreamCap is open to taking a minority stake or acquiring companies outright. DreamCap’s corpus come out of the Dream Sports balance sheet – which means that the TPG-backed company is using its reserve profits to invest in these new initiatives.
Because it is balance-sheet funded, it does not have the restrictions that venture capital firms have, of generating returns in a certain time frame, returning
money to investors quickly or investing in certain stages.
“Dream Sports has a collective user base of 125 million sports fans, and we recognise the great growth opportunities in sports, gaming and fitness-tech in India. As entrepreneurs ourselves, we are here to back other entrepreneurs through Dream Capital and provide them with access to our 125 million-strong user base and operational support from our expert team of CXOs,” Dream Sports co-founder and CEO Harsh Jain said.
“As a multi-stage CVC, we provide patient capital plus deep tactical insights to startups to increase their probability of success. Our aim is to complement entrepreneurs with our strategy, product, and marketing knowledge that is not typically accessible at an early stage,” said DreamCap managing director Dev Bajaj.
Dream Sports is at the intersection of sports, gamification and technology with over 125 million users. It has already made an impact in the sports ecosystem fuelled by the growth in digital infrastructure. However, this only scratches the surface of India’s potential, leaving a plethora of white spaces yet to be explored – specifically in the areas of sports, gaming and fitness.
