MUMBAI: E-sports and mobile gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) announced Thursday that it had raised $500,000 (about Rs 36.5 million) from existing employees as part of its Employee Investment Plan.
The Employee Investment Plan, which was announced in December 2020, was open to all employees of MPL. They could invest anywhere between $2,300 and $23,000 in the company to acquire stock.
“Over 10% of MPL employees participated in this plan, with the total amount raised at $500,000,” an official release states. In September 2020, the company had announced an ESOP buyback plan worth $3.2 million during its Series C funding round that had seen the company raise $90 million from SIG, RTP Global, MDI, Sequoia India, and others.
“This (latest) initiative was introduced so that our most valuable asset, our employees, get an opportunity to own part of MPL and participate in the company’s success,” the release quotes MPL senior vice-president (Corporate Development and Investor Relations) Joe Wadakethalakal as having said.
The company further said it would continue to extend such opportunities to its staff in the future.
It is also worth noting that MPL boasts Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli as not just its brand ambassador, but that he also holds a small stake in the online gaming platform’s parent company – Galactus Funware Technology Private Limited. For the record, Bengaluru-headquartered Galactus is a subsidiary of M-League Pte Ltd, a company registered in Singapore in April 2018.
Founded by Sai Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra, the gaming platform currently has over 500 employees with offices in Bengaluru, Pune, Jakarta, and Singapore.
MPL claims to have over 60 million users in the country. It has expanded to Indonesia too, gaining a 3.5 million-strong user base in a year of operations. MPL has worked with numerous game developers and on-boarded over 70 games on its platform. MPL recently signed up as the ‘official sponsor’ for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) — two of the teams in the IPL (Indian Premier League).
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