MUMBAI: Gaming start-up Zupee has entered into a revenue-sharing partnership with Jio Platforms Ltd, alongside raising $72 million Series B funding from WestCap Group, Tomales Bay Capital, Nepean Capital, AJ Capital, Matrix Partners India and Orios Venture Partners.
The fresh funds are part of the company’s $102-million Series B funding round, of which $30 million was raised in August 2021.
The fund-raise came at a $600 million valuation, the company said in an official statement. Overall, the company has raised $121 million across multiple rounds.
Zupee’s strategic partnership with Reliance Jio entails integration of the real-money gaming platform’s products in Jio handsets, which will reach Jio’s established 450 million userbase.
For the record, Real-money gaming has been banned by multiple states in India, including Karnataka, Assam, Odisha, Sikkim, Nagaland, among others.
The company claims to have over 70 million downloads in India and the new fund raise is expected to help it grow its reach significantly.
Zupee will also use the funds for designing new games, products, and business lines, hiring talent, and international expansion. The company is working on making the platform accessible in 8-10 regional languages over the next three to four months. Currently, it is only available in English and Hindi. The company claims to have hosted 1.2 billion tournaments and gameplays on its platform have grown 6.35x in the last year.
