Steadview Capital buys secondary shares of Dream11; enters Unicorn club

Dream11, India’s biggest sports gaming platform, today announced the completion of a secondary investment by Steadview Capital, an Asia-focused alternative asset manager. This investment marks Dream11’s entry into the ‘Unicorn Club’ as the first Indian gaming company to achieve this milestone. 

Apart from Steadview Capital, Kalaari Capital, Think Investments, Multiples Equity and Tencent are the other marquee investors in Dream11. As per the IFSG-KPMG report, in terms of total user base on a fantasy sports platform, Dream11 is the market leader with over 50 million users. Its user base has grown at a CAGR of ~230 per cent over a period of 3 years. 

Commenting on this development, Harsh Jain, CEO and Co-Founder, Dream11, said, “We are excited to welcome Steadview Capital onboard. Our exponential growth over the past few years would not have been possible without the support and trust of our investors and Dreamsters (employees). Providing great returns to our shareholders, whether investors or Dreamsters, is very important to us and further reinforces their belief in Dream11. We will keep working hard and are targeting to end the year with 100 million users.” 

Ravi Mehta, Managing Director, Steadview Capital, added here, “We at Steadview believe that Dream11 is poised to become the leading sports company in India catering to everything a sports fan needs. We think very highly of the visionary founders and are excited to partner with the team in this journey. The company’s phenomenal growth track-record, dominant leadership in daily fantasy gaming and strong engagement metrics is a testament to the consumer love for the platform.” 

Bhavit Sheth, COO and Co-Founder, Dream11, said, “We are looking forward to working with the Steadview Capital team in providing the best sports experience to fans. I am proud of the fact that a lean yet highly efficient team of just 200 Dreamsters have been the driving force behind our rapid growth.” 

What existing investors have to say on Dream11 becoming a ‘Unicorn’ 

Vani Kola, Founder & Managing Director, Kalaari Capital:
“A start-up is shaped by the spirit of the founders. At Dream11, that is obvious in everything – the aggressive scale, focused execution, customer centricity, employee well being. Becoming the latest unicorn is indeed a proud moment, but I expect the Dream11 team to push sports engagement to new heights. Kalaari is glad to have been a part from the beginning of their journey.” 

Shashin Shah, Founder and CIO, Think Investment:
“Harsh and Bhavit have done an incredible job of maintaining a great culture while guiding the business through hypergrowth. Dream11 is now the world’s largest fantasy sports game and is paving the way for Indian companies to build truly global consumer tech businesses.” 

Sumit Sinha, Managing Director, Multiples Equity:
“At Dream11, we are excited to partner with a really top quality team to drive a shift in how people engage with sports. We are at the beginning of something really big here as this platform becomes synonymous with sports engagement over time.” 

Dream11 claims to have 6 crore+ users playing Fantasy Cricket, Football, Kabaddi, Basketball & Hockey. The platform helps sports fans increase their engagement and connect deeper with the sport they love by being a team owner, not just a spectator. Dream11 is the Official Fantasy Game partner of Vivo IPL, International Council of Cricket (ICC), Vivo Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), Hero Indian Super League (ISL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL), International Hockey Federation (FIH) and Big Bash League (BBL). A Series D funded company, Dream11 was founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth and has been ranked #9 among India's Great Mid-Size Workplaces in 2018.