Chennai, NFAPost: Multi-game platform Gamezop, which has over 34 million monthly active users, has raised Rs 32 crore ($4.3 million) investment from BITKRAFT Ventures, Velo Partners, and FJ Labs.
BITKRAFT is the world’s largest esports fund and co-owner of the publicly-traded esports ETF, NYSE: NERD. Velo Partners is a global real money gaming fund and early backer of Adda52 and Junglee Rummy.
Gamezop is operated by Advergame Technologies Private Limited and was founded by brothers Yashash and Gaurav Agarwal in 2015. Prior to this, the company raised $350K in 2016.
The company licenses HTML5 games from top developers and embeds them in over 1,600 popular apps – including Myntra, Grofers, ShareChat, MX Player, Glance (InMobi), and PhonePe – enabling users of these apps to play games casually or competitively for cash. This way, Gamezop piggybacks on the distribution network of these partner apps and acquires users without any spending. The partner apps see an average 40% boost in engagement time through games, in addition to getting a 50% share in revenue made by Gamezop.
Gamezop’s partner apps are free to choose between two integration options: mobile esports, where users compete on skill-based games in live tournaments to win cash prizes; and free-to-play games, where users play games casually. The company will use the investment to grow the mobile esports format and establish presence in select overseas markets through its piggybacking model.
“Growth of mobile esports is truly democratising the access to competitive gaming and the ability to win real rewards. BITKRAFT is the clear thought leader when it comes to esports, gaming, and immersive entertainment. They were at the top of our list when we began to look for investment partners to help us grow the business,” Gamezop CEO and Co-Founder Yashash Agarwal.
Gamezop is a multi-game platform based in India and the pioneer of HTML5-based mobile esports. With over 270 high-quality games, the platform acts as a gaming section within non-gaming apps, increasing user engagement and monetisation on them instantly. Over 34 million users from across the world play on the platform every month through over 1,600 apps that have integrated Gamezop. The company offers a mobile esports format and a free-to-play gaming format to its partner apps.
Commenting on the funding, BITKRAFT Founding General Partner Malte Barth said, “We have been looking to enter the Indian gaming market for a while and with Gamezop, the factors that excite us the most came together nicely – proven model ready to scale, extreme capital efficiency, solid product moat, and an unfair advantage in user acquisition.”
He added, “That Gamezop could scale to over 34 million users in a highly competitive space, while being profitable and with minimal external capital highlights the team’s capabilities to be a major internet company.”
An early and mid-stage investor focused on the esports sector, BITKRAFT discovers, supports, and scales esports startups globally along with the industry’s most influential companies. BITKRAFT Ventures was founded in 2017 by esports legend, Jens Hilgers. Hilgers previously founded ESL and served as CEO before selling the majority stake to MTG in 2015.
In addition to serving as Managing Partner at BITKRAFT, Jens is the Co-Founder and Chairman of G2 Esports, and the Managing Director of BAYES Holding (formerly DOJO Madness). BITKRAFT’s team is located in Berlin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and London covering video games and esports investments not only digitally but in the most relevant and busy metropoles for digital entertainment in the Western world.
