Inflection Point Ventures bets on esports platform AFK Gaming

With Covid-19 restricting travel, the online gaming segment in India has seen an increase in adoption. Esports and media company AFK Gaming and AnalytlQ sports Technologies owned cricket simulation game SuperCric are the latest startups in this space to secure capital. 

The Mumbai based company on Thursday said it raised $200,000 in a bridge round of funding, dubbed pre-series A, from Inflection Point Ventures.

Founded in 2014 by Nishant Patel, Rakesh Ramchandran and Siddharth Nayyar, the platform provides users with news and content regarding global gaming events for games such as Dota, Counter-Strike and mobile games such as PUBG and Call of Duty, according to a statement.

The company claims to have scaled its reach by four times since January this year and in previous months has clocked over 15 million monthly impressions on average across web, video and social media.

“We believe emergence of esports will see an accelerated acceptance in India. Just like healthcare and education, tech will also disrupt many high-ticket sports properties and we believe AFK gaming is poised well to leverage this opportunity,” Vinay Bansal, founder and CEO at Inflection Point Ventures said.

In other gaming funding news AnalytIQ Sports Technologies run simulation cricket game SuperCric, a Bengaluru based sports tech start-up has raised an undisclosed amount in its angel funding from Malta based gaming company Nordanvind Gaming.

SuperCric is built with a proprietary simulation tool which allows players to put their cricket intelligence and judgement against other competitors. SuperCric, which is the brainchail of ex-Indian cricketer Suhail Chandhok and IIT madras alumni and Kabbadi Adda co-owners Arvind Sivdas and Dhanya Param, will utilise the funds to invest in product development and customer acquisition, with a plan to launch the game and expand its user base to 10 million by the end of the current IPL season.

The simulation game has been built with AI in the background, which is based on historical data of international cricket matches. While SuperCric itself is not a fantasy platform, it provides insights to gamers in fantasy cricket to make the right decisions regarding their virtual playing XI.

“I see tremendous potential in the future of the nascent Indian Gaming industry. As users get more sophisticated there will be a demand and need for more sophisticated products and solutions,” said Pontus Lemberg from Nordanvind Gaming.

Read: Locked down India turns to online gaming to take the edge off  

Business data platform statista.com estimates that the market value of the gaming industry in India will go up from Rs 62 billion in 2019 to over Rs. 250 billion by 2024.

Fantasy gaming platform Dream11 recently raised $225 million in a funding round from an investor consortium consisting of Tiger Global Management and ChrysCapital among others. 

“Despite some of the best esports teams, tournaments and players hailing from the Asian region, there is a distinct lack of coverage available for the global audience. AFK Gaming aims to bridge this gap by marrying our understanding of esports content creation with IPV’s expertise in building scalable, sustainable businesses,” Patel added. 

The funds will be used to link reach to revenue through direct advertising, and to expand the coverage to additional esport games in Southeast Asia.

The team, which currently has 15 members, has signed service contracts with large gaming tournament organisers such as NODWIN gaming and other publishers and brands in India.

Inflection Point Ventures has made 13 investments this year. Founded by CXOs and angel investors, the team at IPV includes the likes of Vinay Bansal, Ola and Bookmyshow veteran Mitesh Shah, Ex-Myntra and Wipro high ranking officer Dipanjan Basu and others. 

The company has invested more than  100 crores in over 35 startups since it began operations in 2018.