Multi-stage investment strategy to nurture the next generation of unicorns
National, August 12, 2021: Dream Capital (DreamCap), the Corporate Venture Capital and M&A arm of Dream Sports, today announced a corpus of US$250M to unlock the high growth potential of startups in sports, gaming and fitness-tech industries in India. Over the past one year, DreamCap has already invested in 8 start-ups in India, such as SoStronk, DreamGameStudios, Elevar, FanCode and DreamSetGo.
As the Corporate Venture Capital and M&A arm of Dream Sports, DreamCap will follow a multi-stage investment strategy ranging from US$1M to $100M ticket sizes, with in-depth coverage of the sports, gaming and fitness-tech sectors. Through its selective process, DreamCap is looking to support start-ups with disruptive technology, great products, data insights and the potential to achieve at least US$100M individually in annual revenues within five years. To date, it has assessed over 250 start-ups and invested in 8 companies. Some representative investments include the acquisition of DreamGameStudios (formerly known as Rolocule) – a mobile gaming studio building best-in-class sports games, as well as a minority investment in SoStronk – a B2C Esports platform for all competitive gamers and Elevar – a D2C performance sports footwear and equipment brand. DreamCap is also doing large follow-on rounds in DS incubated businesses like FanCode and DreamSetGo.
While talking about the capital investment strategy, Harsh Jain, CEO & Co-Founder of Dream Sports, said, “Dream Sports has a collective user base of 125 million sports fans, and we recognise the great growth opportunities in sports, gaming and fitness-tech in India. As entrepreneurs ourselves, we are here to back other entrepreneurs through Dream Capital and provide them with access to our 125 million-strong user base and operational support from our expert team of CXOs.”
Added Dev Bajaj, Managing Director, Dream Capital, said, “As a multi-stage CVC, we provide patient capital plus deep tactical insights to startups to increase their probability of success. Our aim is to complement entrepreneurs with our strategy, product, and marketing knowledge that is not typically accessible at an early stage. DreamCap is always looking to add talent to its team of entrepreneurs and VC/PE professionals with a passion for sports and gaming.”
Dream Sports is at the intersection of sports, gamification and technology with over 125M users. It has already made an impact in the sports ecosystem fuelled by the growth in digital infrastructure. However, this only scratches the surface of India’s potential, leaving a plethora of white spaces yet to be explored – specifically in the areas of Sports, Gaming and Fitness. A robust demand, a large market of fans, and a complementing pool of talent place India at an advantage to become a global hub for these fast-growing industries and unlock its enormous population’s economic value.
