Bengaluru-based Mobile Premier League (MPL) has raised USD 90 million in a funding round that was led by RTP Global and MDI Ventures. Other existing investors of the company are Sequoia India, Go-Ventures, Base Partners, Times Internet, and actor Salman Khan. Without the recent investment, the valuation of the company is around USD 400 million, according to TechCrunch. But MPL’s executive stated that this journey has been more like reading Jeffrey Archer’s novel.
Abhishek Madhavan, SVP of Marketing at MPL tweeted, “Hard to believe, but it has only been 2 short years with more twists and turns than a Jeffrey Archer page-turner.” MPL, an esports and mobile gaming platform, has 60 million users. This number is growing and now the company is mulling over expanding outside of India.
He also stated that the company at times forgets that it is competing with institutions that are older compared to this new entrant.
Madhavan added that having 60 million users outside of Google Play Store is more like approximately 100 million users on the Google Play Store. “...MPL is almost in par with PUBG across the entire country.” MPL app is not available on the Google Play Store as Google Play Store has strict betting policies.
Madhavan took to Twitter to remember the journey of MPL, he stated MPL has shipped more than 60 plus world-class games and run the largest tournaments across e-sports as well as casual games the country has ever seen.
He also recalled that MPL signed Virat Kohli when the company was a 3-month-old company. “When we got out of the Play Store, we were told growth will be very very hard to come by, every single marketing metric would fall.”
