NEW DELHI: Fast growing Indian online poker platform 9stacks has become the first company in the industry to have raised a Series A funding.
Worth Rs. 280 million, the round was led by its existing pool of investors and WaterBridge Ventures; which calls itself a ‘venture catalyst for tech entrepreneurs in the country’ having 30 years of experience in the field.
Started by IIT & IIM alumni, Sudhir Kamath, Pratik Kumar, Abhinav Nigam and Rishab Mathur in 2017, 9stacks has the ambition to provide an authentic, transparent and simple online poker experience, which would make it a fun sport for everyone.
“India is at the cusp of massive online gaming adoption with an exponential increase in players and revenue expected in this sector. Real Money Gaming will have a significant wallet share of online due to ubiquitous mobile access, increasing disposable income, convenience and superior user experience. Having said that, it is an execution heavy space and we therefore chose to back a highly professional and accomplished team of founders comprising of Sudhir, Pratik, Abhinav and Rishab. We are proud to partner with this founding team with great pedigree and a proven track record,” WaterBridge Ventures MD Manish Kheterpal said.
“With Waterbridge Ventures becoming the lead investor in our Series A fund raise, we are delighted to announce that 9stacks is India’s first online poker company to reach this funding milestone. This is a great sign of confidence in the 9stacks team, the systems and processes we’ve put in place, in addition to the rapidly growing market itself. We will use these funds to ramp up user acquisition, data analytics, machine learning, and product & market expansion. We want 9stacks to be the preferred platform for poker in India, especially for new players, where anyone can discover, learn and play poker, any time, anywhere,” 9stacks CEO Sudhir Kamath said.
Recently, the company took 25 of its users to Las Vegas for the 2018 World Series of Poker. ‘9stacks Team India’ came out with flying colors, with two players finishing in the top 100 of the main event; the best ever finish by any Indian.
