Dream Sports, which runs online fantasy sports platform Dream11, has closed a fresh $840 million funding round—led by Falcon Edge, DST Global, D1 Capital, Redbird Capital, and Tiger Global—at a valuation of $8 billion.
The investment—that the company claims is among the largest globally in the sports tech sector—has also been backed by existing investors TPG and Footpath Ventures.
That investor appetite for the space is considerable is probably explained by the spate of investments that companies are garnering at a fast clip. In March this year, Dream Sports had raised $400 million in a secondary investment round valuing the firm at about $5 billion.
Founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, Dream Sports claims to have a user base of 140 million and houses a bunch of brands such as Dream Capital, FanCode, DreamSetGo, Dream Game Studios, and DreamPay, besides the flagship Dream11.
“Our vision and mission is to create an entrepreneur-led virtuous cycle of investment, innovation and wealth creation for all stakeholders in the sports ecosystem, from fans to athletes, teams and leagues. Our investors have deep experience in developing sports ecosystems globally, and we are fortunate to have their guidance to Make Sports Better’ for 1 Billion Indian sports fans,” CEO & co-founder Harsh Jain has said in a statement on Wednesday.
The company did not mention how it plans to deploy the fresh capital. However, in an interview with local media post the funding, Jain has alluded that the company aims to build a broader sports ecosystem in the country, beyond the realm of fantasy gaming.
Earlier this year, Dream Sports announced a corpus of $250 million through its CVC and M&A arm, Dream Capital. Dream Capital has built an initial portfolio of 10 companies—largely focusing on thematic early-stage investments in India, including Fittr, SoStronk, KheloMore and Elevar. Dream Capital is now expanding its sports, fan engagement and fitness portfolio in India and globally.
