Esports startup Mobile Premier League is now valued at $2.3 billion

• MPL raised an undisclosed amount in a Series E round led by Legatum Capital.
• The platform allows users to play mobile games for real money.
• The company was valued at $945 million in February 2021, after Series D round.
• It will use the funding to grow its business internationally and onboard more homegrown technology.

Esports and skill gaming company Mobile Premier League (MPL) is the latest entrant to the unicorn club. The company has raised an undisclosed amount in a Series E round led by Legatum Capital, at a pre-money valuation of $2.3 billion.

A unicorn, in a startup parlance, is a company valued at over a billion dollars.

Mobile Premier League had raised $95 million in a Series D round earlier in February this year. The Bengaluru-based startup was valued at a post money valuation of $945 million in that round. Its valuation has more than doubled in the latest round.

Accrete Capital, Gaingels LLC participated in the Series E round, along with existing investors such as Sequoia, SIG, RTP Global, Go-Ventures, Play Ventures, Base Partners, Telstra Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures LLC and RTP Global.

The company will use this funding to scale its business internationally, invest in homegrown technology and drive continued growth in the Indian market.

Sai Srinivas, cofounder and chief executive of MPL said that Mobile Premier League has already proved its success in the Indian and Indonesian market. It now wants to expand its presence in the US market, where operations are off to a “promising start”.

Mobile Premier League was founded in 2018 by Srinivas and Shubham Malhotra, who previously worked in Bengaluru-based media streaming technology startup Creo that was acquired by messaging service Hike in August 2017.

The platform allows users to play mobile games for real money. The users who manage to stay in the game for a certain pre-decided duration, defeating other players, wins. Beyond this, it also allows developers to montinse their games for day one of publishing it on their platform.

Joe Wadakethalakal, senior vice president of corporate development at MPL, said, “Our platform strategy allows us to pool user liquidity, enable synchronous competitions, aggregate gaming content, and drive superior matchmaking, which all together enable best-in-class user retention and monetisation.”

The three-year-old startup claims to have over 70 games listed on the platform for its 85 million users. It employs over 800 individuals across Bengaluru, Pune, Jakarta, Singapore and New York.

It competes with Dream11, which is valued at $5 billion. Dream11 is now reportedly in talks to raise $400 million at a $8.5 billion valuation.

Disclaimer: Business Insider India is a partner of Times Bridge, which is a unit of Times Internet that is an investor in MPL
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