E-sports startup GamingMonk raises funding from Japanese firm GameWith

E-sports startup GamingMonk Entertainment Pvt. Ltd said it has raised $100,000 (Rs 69 lakh at current exchange rate) from Japanese firm GameWith, Inc., which owns and operates a game information website.

“The Indian gaming industry is still at infancy stage and needs the expertise of stalwarts like GameWith to flourish at its best and with this partnership we are very hopeful to change the experience of our gamers as well the perceptions of non-gamers,” said Ashwin Haryani, co-founder, GamingMonk, in a statement.

GamingMonk was founded by Amity University graduates Abhay Sharma and Haryani in November 2014. It started out as an e-commerce marketplace for consoles, gaming titles and other accessories, and later pivoted to become an organiser of e-sports events.

The firm organises online and offline e-sports events. Offline tournaments are held across eight cities and the company plans to expand coverage to 16 cities this year.

GamingMonk claims to have organised more than 200 competitive tournaments across the country with 35,000 participants. The platform hosts tournaments of games such as PUBG, CS:GO, DOTA 2, FIFA, Call of Duty, and Clash Royale.

Last year in October, it raised Rs 4 crore in a fresh round of funding from Japanese seed investment firm Incubate Fund and Google India managing director Rajan Anandan.

A clutch of other investors including Stellaris Venture Partners, Smile Group, and AdvantEdge also participated in that round.

Venture capital firm AdvantEdge had previously invested in GamingMonk in September 2017.

GamingMonk claims to have grown its user base by 500% in the last six months.

According to a report by consulting major KPMG and Indian Federation of Sports Gaming, the online gaming industry in India is expected to generate a revenue of Rs 11,900 crore by 2022-23. The number of gamers have crossed 250 million and the figure is expected to reach 628 million by 2020, the report said.

Earlier this month, Mumbai-based fantasy sports startup HalaPlay Technologies Pvt. Ltd said it has raised Rs 40 crore ($5 million at current exchange rate) in a Series A round from mobile game developer Nazara Technologies Ltd and casino gaming company Delta Corp Ltd, both headquartered in India.

Same month, TechCircle reported that Dream11, a fantasy gaming platform, could soon vault into the unicorn club with Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital set to bet more than $100 million on the startup.

Last year, Mumbai-based Nazara Technologies Ltd acquired a 55% stake in Gurugram-based e-sports platform Nodwin Gaming.