The Indian publication Economic Times reports that early-stage venture capital firm, WaterBridge Ventures, has led a Rs 28 crore (US$3.84 million) Series A funding round in SparSkills Technologies, which owns and operates online poker platform 9stacks, in a transaction that signals the growing interest of investors in the country’s nascent real money gaming segment.
Proceeds from the latest funding round will be used by the Delhi-based 14 month-old company to expand its team, and further build its technology platform, with a particular focus on user acquisition, data analytics, machine learning, and product and market expansion..
The new round of funding comes less than a year after 9stacks raised Rs 10 crore (US$ 1.4 million) from angel investors last December.
“We want 9Stacks to be the preferred platform for poker in India, especially for new players, where anyone can discover, learn and play poker, anytime, anywhere,” 9Stacks founder and CEO Sudhir Kamath said in a statement. 9Stacks currently offers its online poker service to 24 states in India.
A bullish Manish Kheterpal, managing partner of WaterBridge Ventures, said: “India is at the cusp of massive online gaming adoption with an exponential increase in players and revenue expected in this sector. Real Money Gaming will have a significant wallet share of online due to ubiquitous mobile access, increasing disposable income, convenience and superior user experience.
“Having said that, it is an execution heavy space and we therefore chose to back a highly professional and accomplished team of founders comprising of Sudhir, Pratik [Kumar], Abhinav [Nigam] and Rishab [Mathur].”