GamerJi: bridging the gap between amateur to professional level gamer

The Indian gaming community is finally getting their moment in the Sun. As we brace ourselves for the 3rd wave, people are continuing to stay indoors. Both amateurs and pros are naturally honing their online gaming skills. Today, gamers need platforms that can provide them with competitive exposure to help in their Esports journey as an increasing number of young video gamers view competitive gaming as a career opportunity, rather than just a recreational activity. According to a study by the All India Gaming Federation, there were 365 million online gamers in the country in 2020, with the number expected to rise to 510 million by 2022.

GamerJi aims to put India on the global Esports map by addressing and encouraging aspiring gamers and providing them with evolving competitive gaming possibilities.

Founded in 2019 by gaming expert and serial entrepreneur, Soham Thacker, GamerJi is India's leading Esports tournament platform where users can play tournaments of their favorite games, host matches, communicate, share content & win prizes. Headquartered in Ahmedabad, the company has consolidated procedures such as registrations, player management and payments, making it a one-stop platform for e-sports tournaments.

GamerJi enhances gamers' experience with its unique features such as gaming profile, content sharing, group chats, communication and cross-game leaderboard that help gamers maintain their gaming stats. 

Prior to launching Gamerji, Soham founded innovative startups that included ‘Just Mexican’, an FnB chain of Mexican fast-food restaurants, ‘Fixpocket’, a freelancing service marketplace, as well as ‘Fantasyji’, a fantasy sports website. During his journey with Fantasyji, Soham saw the potential of Esports as a segment and the rising demand for it among Esports athletes in India. 

Soham Thacker, Founder, GamerJi says, “The Indian gaming community is transforming and evolving at a rapid pace, encouraging budding gamers to hone their online gaming skills, strengthening existing gaming communities. Competitive gaming platforms like ours provide a transitional area for aspiring and potential Esports athletes. We at GamerJi believe in bridging the gap between amateur to professional level gamers through our tournaments.” 

Tournaments & Engagement 

To access and play on GamerJi is simple, convenient and engaging: Join on the platform, select the game of choice, participate in contests and win prizes. 

The pandemic has accelerated Gamerji’s stats. The Company has seen a 7X rise in traffic since last year. GamerJi mobile app available on App Store and Google Play Store has over 1.3 million users and has conducted over 22,000 matches since its inception and hosts more than 125 tournaments daily for games such as Call of Duty and Free Fire amongst others. On average, time spent on Gamerji’s app is 37 minutes. The platform has partnered with close to 200 private organizers as well as Indian gaming influencers to host customized Esports tournaments.

The first GamerJi Community Challenge GCC 1.0, which ran this year from January 23 to January 31, featured 6 games and a prize pool of Rs. 1 lakh, attracted over 21,000 players, and reached over 7.3 million influencers with a 67% engagement rate.

GamerJi recently launched its second Community Challenge GCC 2.0 which witnessed one of the highest participation numbers under a single event, with over 30,000 registrations, surpassing GCC 1.0. GCC 2.0 featured a prize pool of Rs 3,00,000 and consisted of some of the most popular multiplayer games which include Clash Royale, Call of Duty Mobile, FIFA Mobile, WCC3 and Ludo. GamerJi has also been part of F20 Cohort Company with Stadia Ventures, a global Sports Innovation Hub for early stage investment in sports and Esports.

Funding 

In Jan 2020, GamerJi raised friends & family capital from La Gajjar Group, an investment group based in Ahmedabad. In October 2020, GamerJi raised seed investment funding of an undisclosed amount from Unicorn India Ventures, a Mumbai-based early stage VC firm and Lead Angels Network. The company plans to raise Pre-series A capital towards this year’s end. 

Future Plans 

Soham Thacker, Founder, GamerJi adds, “We will soon be introducing advanced features unique to GamerJi that help elevate the gamer experience, improve their gameplay and evaluate games that best suit their skill sets. New features to include Gaming statistics, Insights & Tips, Clan Creation, Collegiate leagues, World of Esports and Fan following.” 

GamerJi platform is witnessing fast growth and is aggressively elevating the inter college Esports landscape in the country with its college gaming league - CGL which has associated with more than 100 college teams since March 2021. CGL tournaments held in Apr this year saw more than 50 colleges compete including BITS - Pilani, Symbiosis Pune, Delhi university and nineteen IITs amongst others.

The company plans to host three inter-college CGL tournaments and two GamerJi Community Challenge - GCC by this year's end.