Gaming Startup BuyStars Raises $5 Mn Funding To Offer Sports Collectibles, Skill-Based Games
Summary
The startup will use the funding proceeds in scaling business and launching new games Including the current fundraising, BuyStars secured $9 Mn in total from different investors The startup claims to have onboarded 1.5 Mn users and clocked a monthly gross merchandise value (GMV) of over $1 MnFantasy gaming startup BuyStars has raised $5 Mn in a Pre-Series A funding round led by VC fund Lumikai, Chiratae and Leo Capital.BuyStars will use the funding in scaling business and launching new games on the platform.Including the current fundraising, BuyStars secured $9 Mn in total from different investors.Founded in 2021 by Aman Satija and Sriram Krishnamoorthy, BuyStars is a sports collectibles and skill gaming startup. It offers skill games including fantasy, player trading and trump cards.Globally, the sports collectibles market is valued at $5.4 Bn annually with sports cards trading growing at nearly 140% year-on-year in terms of volume. In India alone, skill-based real money gaming and fantasy sports segment accounted for $1.5 Bn of the $2.6 Bn gaming industry in FY22, growing at a CAGR of 25% in the next five years, said Salone Sehgal, founding general partner of Lumikai.The foundersAman and Sriram hold years of experience in the Indian real money gaming (RMG) segment. They held product and marketing leadership positions at multiple companies such as Jungle Games, cure.fit, Games24X7, IBM, Amazon, Flipkart and TCS, among others.The startup claims to have onboarded 1.5 Mn users and clocked a monthly gross merchandise value (GMV) of over $1 Mn.BuyStars was started with a mission to disrupt how cricket fans engage with games today. While funding is never a testament to a companys success, however, when experienced investors decide to back a company, its definitely a great validation of the mission one started with and a tribute to the hard work of a team which came together to build it, said, Aman Satija, CEO and cofounder of BuyStars.In India, it competes with the likes of gaming majors such as Dream11, Nazara Technologies, Halaplay and MPL.As per an IBEF report, the countrys gaming industry was anticipated to be nearly $2.6 Bn in the financial year 2022.