Dream sports has allocated $250 Mn to its venture capital arm Dream Capital for further investment in sports, gaming, and fitness tech startups
Dream Sports is a sports technology company that provides multiple fan engagement avenues, including fantasy sports, content, commerce, among others
The corpus fund size is bigger than that of VC firms like Stellaris Venture Partners, and Chiratae Ventures
Sports tech startup Dream Sports — parent company of fantasy gaming unicorn Dream11 — has made an initial allocation of $250 Mn to Dream Capital.
Dream Capital is the startup’s venture capital and acquisition arm. Dream Capital will follow a multi-stage investment strategy ranging from $1 million to $100 million ticket sizes. It includes in-depth coverage of the sports, gaming and fitness-tech sectors.
Founded in 2008 by Harshit Jain and Bhavit Sait, Dream Sports is a sports technology company with brands such as Dream11, FanCode, DreamX, DreamSetGo, and DreamPay. Over the years, the startup has ventured into providing multiple fan engagement avenues, including fantasy sports, content, commerce, experiences, and events.
To date, the platform has assessed over 250 startups and invested in eight companies. Some representative investments include the acquisition of DreamGameStudios (formerly known as Rolocule) — a mobile gaming studio building sports games. Others include minority investment in SoStronk — a B2C Esports platform for all competitive gamers and Elevar — a D2C performance sports footwear and equipment brand.
In May 2021, Dream Sports Investment infused $50 Mn in the startup’s multi-sport aggregator platform FanCode. It is planning for large follow-on rounds in Dream Sports incubated businesses like FanCode and DreamSetGo
The open-ended (evergreen) fund will receive funding from the balance sheet of Dream Sports. The startup is aiming to increase the corpus of its fund in the future.
According to an Inc42 report, Indian mobile gaming startups raised $180 Mn in funding in 2020 and has the potential to generate INR 1.5 Bn by online transactions by 2023.
Dream11 competes with other fantasy gaming companies in India like MyTeam11, Nazara-backed HalaPlay, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Fantain Sports, among others.
Dream Sports is also considering a US listing by early next year.
The corpus of Dream Capital is much bigger than that of venture capital firms, like Stellaris Venture Partners, which closed at $225 Mn.
Besides Dream Sports, other startups like Lenskart (Vision Fund), Flipkart (Flipkart Ventures), Paytm (One97 Mobility Fund) have also turned into venture capital investors and provided early capital to help mobile-first startups.
“As a multi-stage CVC, we provide patient capital plus deep tactical insights to startups to increase their probability of success,” said Dev Bajaj, managing director, Dream Capital. “Our aim is to complement entrepreneurs with our strategy, product, and marketing knowledge that is not typically accessible at an early stage. Dream Capital is always looking to add talent to its team of entrepreneurs and VC and PE professionals with a passion for sports and gaming.”
