Actor Boman Irani backs sports startup Rooter

Rooter, a sports social gaming platform, has raised an undisclosed amount of investment from actor Boman Irani.

The seed round also saw participation from Dhruv Chitgopekar, partner at Kwan Entertainment, and Prantik Dasgupta, a corporate professional and avid sports enthusiast.

The new capital will be used to strengthen the technology team and create strategic partnerships with various sports platforms, teams, fan clubs and associations, the company said in a press statement.

The mobile-based platform allows fans to connect through pre-match quizzes and chat forums, live match prediction games and post-match interactions in order to share their insights, predictions, analysis and opinions of the game.

Rooter currently covers football, cricket and tennis.

"I am proud to be part of the world's first platform that connects sports fans and engages them to discuss, predict, quiz and even meet offline during the world's most exciting sporting events. With Rooter's unique approach, like-minded sporting buddies around the world are now one," Boman Irani said on the investment.

Rooter Sports Technologies Pvt. Ltd. was founded by sports enthusiasts Piyush (CEO) and Soham Sinha (CTO).

"Rooter is based on the inherent need of sports fans to connect and interact with one another across the real and the digital worlds. This (investment) comes as a major shot in the arm for us, and encourages us to push on and use technology to make the sports consumption experience even better and more enjoyable," said Piyush.

Many celebrities have taken an interest in startup investments lately, either as an investor or as an entrepreneur. Actor and television host Rannvijay Singh invested in fashion styling app IStyleYou. Actor and activist Gul Panag has launched a fitness-centered mobile app Mobiefit.

Farhan Akhtar has backed film discovery app Flickbay, while Suniel Shetty has backed men's grooming products startup Beardo.

Startups focussed on sports have garnered a lot of investor interest. Last month Sports management company Procam International Pvt. Ltd picked up a 26% stake in Eventjini, an online event registration and ticketing solutions company.

Prior to that, Singapore-based Agnificent Platform Technologies Pte. Ltd, which runs Khel Now, a crowd-managed platform that aims to bring sports-related content and social networking together, raised $350,000 from Anglian Omega Network. Anglian had also invested in Leh Leh Sports, a startup that addresses problems faced by people who want to engage in sports activities.

Moreover, sports management and marketing company IOT Sporting Aspirations Pvt Ltd launched a fund to back sports startups exclusively.