Published 13:36 IST, May 6th 2020

Paytm, Adidas invest ₹12.8 crore in Indian startup Rooter's new eSports platform: Report

Paytm, Adidas invest in Indian sports community platform Rooter, which has managed to raise $1.7 million (around Rs 12.8 crore) in pre-series A round.

Reported by: Jatin Malu
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All sporting activities in world have come to a halt because of coronavirus pandemic. This has resulted in sporting boards and several sporting platforms taking a serious financial hit. However, Indian sports community platform Rooter has still mand to raise $1.7 million (approximately ₹12.8 crore) in a recent pre-series A round.

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Paytm makes huge investment in India-based Rooter Sports Techlogies Pvt. Ltd

According to VCCircle, key investors in Delhi-based startup Rooter were digital payments firm Paytm and also included Adidas-backed fund leAD Sports, Rockstud Capital, and Founder Bank Capital, an early st arm of RB Investments. Rooter's existing investors, including Anthill Ventures, Venture Catalysts and or angel investors were also a part of round.

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Rooter aims at growing its user base over next one year and capitalising on company’s upcoming eSports and gaming content and communities and se funds will be utilized for same. Rooter is also set to launch user monetisation channels, in addition to current advertising monetisation, with gifting ecomy working very well for many content-based startups in country. Rooter is also going to enter into a strategic partnership with Paytm First Games.

With new funding, where both companies will come toger to grow cricket, esports, fantasy sports and gaming ecosystem by creating integration across gaming and content. This could make Rooter a direct competitor with likes of Dream11, which has a virtual mopoly in online fantasy gaming market in India. Paytm is principal sponsor of all international and domestic cricket matches in India and this move could catapult m to venture in or sports as well.

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Paytm First Games chief operating officer Sudhanshu Gupta said that company was confident of its investment in Rooter because of its user community and potential of integration with Paytm’s own offerings. Rooter Sports Techlogies Pvt. Ltd was set up by Piyush and Dipesh Agarwal in 2016. company engs enthusiasts with user-generated live audio and video content in at least ten Indian langus across several sports.

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Paytm co-founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma also confirmed development in a tweet -

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IM COURTESY: PAYTM AND ADIDAS TWITTER

13:36 IST, May 6th 2020