MPL bags $90m; valuation rises to $450 million | Economic Times

Bengaluru: Gaming startup Mobile Premier League (MPL) has raised $90 million in its latest financing round, its top executive told ET. The company also executed a buyback of employee stock ownership plans (Esops) worth $3.2 million as part of the fundraising. The latest round, valuing the real money competitive mobile gaming platform at $450 million, was led by SIG Global and RTP Global, along with MDI Ventures and Pegasus Tech Ventures. Existing investors Sequoia India, Go-Ventures and Base Partners also participated in the round. MPL’s early investor also includes Times Internet, a part of the Times group, which publishes this paper. This takes the total investment raised by the two-year-old firm to $130.5 million.“Our goal, with respect to this fundraise, is to set us up to go to multiple international markets... and, separately, as a part of this raise we are doing a significant Esop buyback,” Sai Srinivas, cofounder and CEO of MPL, told ET. 78246518“This valuation is more of a validation of the business. We look at long-term success as listing our company on the Nasdaq or equivalent exchange,” he said.The funding will fuel its expansion plans to markets including South Korea, Japan and the North American region, as well as strengthen product development with a focus on social functions such as live streaming, and audio and video content features.MPL is a gaming platform that offers more than 70 real-money games, including fantasy sports, rummy, poker, chess, 3D pool, ludo, and carrom. About 15-25% of its business comes from fantasy sports, depending on the offline seasonality of sports events.