A huge number of Indians every year gather virtual sports teams, putting their expectations on the players they pick to perform extremely well in real-world matches. On the off chance that the prediction is correct, users win money.

FanClash, a two-year-old Indian startup, is endeavoring to bring esports like the sleeper hit titles PUBG Mobile, COD, and DOTA 2 to this fantasy sports world. Investors are anticipating that this model and the FanClash team will convey, and said on Friday that they have poured $40 million of fresh funding into the startup.

Alpha Wave Global, previously known as Falcon Edge Capital, drove FanClash’s Series B funding round. Sequoia Capital India, Info Edge, and Polygon likewise took part in the round. FanClash recently raised $10.5 million, including a $10 million Series A.

As is well known across cricket and football-themed fantasy sports startups, on FanClash, users contend with each other across a few famous titles, including Counter-Strike: Go, FreeFire, and League of Legends, by choosing their favorite players and turning up made-up teams.

A huge number of Indians watch and play esports. As the hunger for daily fantasy sports develops among fans, startups are progressively hoping to construct billion-dollar open doors. However, not at all like cricket devotees, who can utilize platforms to earn rewards by making predictions, esports fans who wish to adapt their skills and information weren’t served previously, said Richa Singh, co-founder, and CEO of FanClash, in an interview with TechCrunch.

“We focus only on core esports tournaments. We are not looking into casual games. Our thesis is that the world is seeing the emergence of a new kind of sport, and when there’s a new sport, there will be a data layer and a fantasy layer built on top of it,” she said. “This esports have a larger following than cricket, but they lack data and fantasy layers.”

Singh declined to disclose the number of users FanClash has amassed, yet said the startup has been developing quickly since launching the eponymous service early last year and is the “biggest esports fantasy business in India.”

” Online gaming has over 300 million users in India and esports has hit an inflection point with over 100 million Indian viewers,” said Rajan Anandan, MD at Sequoia India and Southeast Asia, in an explanation.

“The online gaming market is also monetizing well and is on track to surpass $5 billion in revenues by 2025. Going after this opportunity, FanClash is building an exciting new destination for esports fans with an incredible product that is loved by its users.”

FanClash considers India as its biggest market and is exploring global expansion. It’s being tested in the Philippines, said, Singh.

“We aspire to be a household name in the global gaming community. At a broader level, our vision is to make the Indian startup ecosystem proud by creating a global digital product from India, for the world’ and we believe we have the right ingredients to become world leaders,” she said.

The startup intends to use the fresh funds to enlist the ability to scale the platform. “This is why we are going public with our news,” she said in the startup’s maiden media interview.

“Esports have proven to be the next step in the evolution of the gaming industry. This is a global market which still has massive unsolved problems around fantasy as well as fan engagement,” said Anirudh Singh, MD at Alpha Wave Global, in a statement.

“Using data as a moat, we were very impressed with the way FanClash has built out its gaming platform for global markets. The company has also shown its execution strength across all international markets while maintaining high capital efficiency — reflected in the industry-leading metrics like LTV/CAC. We are privileged to partner with the team and are looking forward to helping build out a global esports platform,” he said.

Credit: Techcrunch