Bengaluru, June 17
Indian esports start-up, FanClash has raised $40 million in Series B funding from Sequoia Capital, Falcon Edge (Alpha Wave Ventures), Info Edge India and Matic Networks (Polygon).
This follows a Series A round of $10 million from Sequoia Capital India, Falcon Edge (Alpha Wave Ventures) and Info Edge India in August 2021. “The company plans to use the funds for global expansion, building the team and user acquisition. FanClash released its product in India in 2021 and in the Philippines in June 2022 and aims to launch in Vietnam and the US by early 2023”, said a spokesperson from the company.
Fantasy gaming application
Founded in 2020, FanClash started its journey as a fantasy gaming application for all core esports viewers and has evolved into an esports fantasy platform with operations in India and the Philippines. FanClash provides a forum for the fans to monetise their knowledge of esports.
Users can create their fantasy teams from every tournament and earn rewards based on the real-life performance of the teams. The platform enables users to play fantasy on all leading global tournaments across top esports such as FreeFire, PUBG Mobile, COD Mobile, COD PC, Valorant, CS:GO, League of Legends, and DOTA 2 etc.
“Esports fans around the world spend about 8-10 hours a week watching tournaments and gameplay, yet there are not enough avenues for players and viewers to monetise their knowledge in any way. Our customers love FanClash not only because it gives them the opportunity to compete in fantasy games, but also for making them financially independent and hence taken seriously as esports fans. The industry has corroborated this by the stellar adoption of FanClash in the last 12 months,” said Rishabh Bhansali, co-founder of FanClash.h
Online gaming market
“Online gaming has over 300 million users in India and esports has hit an inflection point with over 100 million Indian viewers. The online gaming market is also monetising well and is on track to surpass $5 billion in revenues by 2025. Going after this opportunity, FanClash is building an exciting new destination for esports fans with an incredible product that is loved by its users. We are inspired by their mission to revolutionise the esports industry, and Sequoia Capital India is excited to partner with the FanClash team.” said Rajan Anandan, MD, Sequoia India.
“Esports have proven to be the next step in the evolution of the gaming industry. This is a global market which still has massive unsolved problems around fantasy as well as fan engagement. Using data as a moat, we were very impressed with the way FanClash has built out its gaming platform for global markets. The company has also shown its execution strength across all international markets, while maintaining high capital efficiency - reflected in the industry leading metrics like LTV/CAC. We are privileged to partner with the team and are looking forward to help build out a global Esports platform” said Anirudh Singh, MD, Alpha Wave Global.