Elevation Capital leads funding in mobile gaming streamer Turnip

Mobile gaming streamer Turnip Media Pvt Ltd on Thursday said it has raised $1.63 million (around Rs 12 crore) in a seed round of funding led by Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners).

Early-stage venture firm Better Capital also participated in this round, said Turnip in a statement.

VCCircle had already reported this round last year.

The company plans to use the funds to expand its reach gaming communities and hire people, the statement added.

Turnip was founded in April 2020 by Pooja Dubey and Aditya Sharma, both graduates of IIT Guwahati. This is not their first entrepreneurship stint. 

Dubey had earlier co-founded online fashion rental platform Blinge. She also worked with venture capital-backed companies Razorpay and CureFit before launching Turnip. Sharma had co-founded GrabonRent and had previously worked at Hewlett-Packard.

Turnip is now a 12-member team. Its other members have previously worked at CureFit, Razorpay, Google, Spotify, Flipkart, Rivigo, Paytm and Swiggy.

The startup says it helps creators stream on YouTube, Facebook, Twitch and run interactive experiences for their communities and monetise the engagement. 

It also allows gaming enthusiasts to join communities of their favourite creators. The company claims it has more than 250,000 users, gained organically.

Dubey said the advent of powerful smartphones and cheap data rates has pushed gaming into the spotlight.

The broader mobile gaming space attracted significant funding last year.

In September, Mobile Premier League (MPL) raised $90 million in its Series C round of funding led by Susquehanna International Group, a global trading firm based near Philadelphia, and existing investor RTP Global.

This deal came on the heels of sports-technology firm Dream11 raising $225 million from a bunch of investment firms including US-based Tiger Global Management and TPG.

Apart from these big-ticket fundings, other gaming startups that raised funding recently include Tictok Skill Games, Gamezop, Firescore Interactive and JetSynthesys.