MPL Bags $90m; Valuation Rises To $450 Million

Bengaluru: Gaming startup Mobile Premier League has raised $90 million in its latest financing round, its top executive told ET. The company also executed a buyback of employee stock ownership plans worth $3.2 million as part of the fundraising. The latest round, valuing the real money competitive mobile gaming platform at $450 million, was led by SIG Global and RTP Global, along with MDI Ventures and Pegasus Tech Ventures. Existing investors Sequoia India, Go-Ventures and Base Partners also participated in the round. MPL’s early investor also includes Times Internet, a part of the Times group, which publishes this paper. This takes the total investment raised by the two-year-old firm to $130.5 million. “Our goal, with respect to this fundraise, is to set us up to go to multiple international markets… and, separately, as a part of this raise we are doing a significant Esop buyback,” Sai Srinivas, cofounder and CEO of MPL, told ET.”This valuation is more of a validation of the business. We look at long-term success as listing our company on the Nasdaq or equivalent exchange,” he said. MPL is a gaming platform that offers more than 70 real-money games, including fantasy sports, rummy, poker, chess, 3D pool, ludo, and carrom.