Popular online gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) is in talks with existing investors including Composite Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures and SIG and some new investors like DST Global to raise up to $150 million. If the potential round materializes, it would be the third funding round for the two-and-a-half-year-old company in the past seven months. In addition, MPL announced the acquisition of New Delhi-based e-sports gaming platform Gaming Monk.
Read more at: https://bit.ly/3eRqTTs
AAA Valuation Comment: Mobile Premier League (“MPL”) is a mobile e-sports platform operated by Galactus Funware Technology Pvt. Ltd. having a user base of more than 60 million in India and 3.5 million users in Indonesia, also serves as a publishing platform for other gaming firms. MPL is a platform where users can sign up to play skill-games and win cash prizes in return. The company had raised $95 million in February 2021 at a valuation of $945 million and $90 million in September 2020. A user can choose to play three different formats of games namely tournaments, 1-vs-1 battle, Fantasy sports as compared to the Dream11 which is only a fantasy sport gaming platform. According to a FICCI-EY report, the current online gamer’s base in India stands at 360 million and projected to cross the 500 million mark by 2025.
A new type of audio based social networking app Clubhouse recently bagged Series C funding led by the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz along with other major investors such as DST Global, Tiger Global, and Elad Gil. The company did not disclose the scale of funding but it is said that the funding will value the company at $4 billion. Currently, the app is available only for iOS users, however, it is preparing for its Android launch sooner next month.
Read more at: https://tcrn.ch/3tLgfUu
AAA Valuation Comments: Clubhouse is an audio-only app that hosts virtual rooms for live discussions, with opportunities for individuals to participate through speaking and listening. Clubhouse, a year-old platform, has reported 10 million weekly active users which has thrived during the pandemic while people were under a locked down. The app is available only for iOS and is currently working on building a version for Android. This app is banned by countries such as Oman, Jordan and China etc for not having a proper license to operate and due to privacy issues. The lack of censorship and regulation associated with Clubhouse rooms is concerning for many governments. Clubhouse has plans to monetize the platform by tracking its users and selling user information. The competitor of this audio only apps are Facebook, Twitter spaces, Reddit, Spotify, telegram etc.
Cloud data protection and management company Druva on Monday announced it has raised $147 million led by CDPQ, a global investment group, taking its valuation to $2 billion. This round of funding also has a significant investment by New York-based Neuberger Berman and had participation by already existing investors Viking Global Investors and Atreides Management.
Read more at: https://bit.ly/337yI1y
AAA Valuation Comments: Druva Inc. is a privately-held software company based in Sunnyvale, California engaged in providing SaaS-based data protection and management products for corporations and government agencies which includes enterprise data from endpoints, data center, and cloud workloads for backup and restore, disaster recovery etc. In the last year, the Druva’s data under management has grown by more than 40 per cent as it supports industry leaders and pioneers including GameStop, Marriott, NASA, National Cancer Institute, Pfizer, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. With the enterprises moving swiftly to adopt cloud solutions to strengthen business resilience, maintain critical business operations, and support hybrid work models the adaption of cloud based platform has increased.
Bangalore based fintech Razorpay has raised $160 million in its Series E financing round that valued the startup at $3 billion in less than 6 months. The rounded was funded by investors like Sequoia India and Singapore-based GIC and existing investors included Ribbit Capital and Tiger Global. It is said that the company will use the funding to take its digital payments offering to South East Asia, make acquisitions and build out its neo-banking platform.
Read more at: https://bit.ly/3ubVrp9
AAA Valuation Comment: Razorpay is a payment service provider that helps businesses automate collections through its gateway service, while helping small businesses manage money flow. It provides payment solutions to over 5 million small merchants and its neo-banking platform “Razorpay X” helps merchants run current accounts and access credit from partner banks, processes loans worth Rs 700-800 crore every month. Its clients include food delivery platforms Swiggy and Zomato, as well as Facebook, Cred, ICICI Prudential and Ola. The digital payment transactions are increased by 76% in Jan-March, 2021 due to digital adoption by the business in tire-2 & tier 3 cities also. The fintech company competes with BillDesk, CC Avenues, Paytm and PayU in the payment gateway business, and with others such as Jupiter, Niyo and Open in the business of neo-banking.
Home service providers Urban Company has raised $188 million in its latest funding round Taking the valuation of the startup to $2 billion. The funding round was led by Prosus, along with participation of two new investors – DF International and Wellington Management.
Read more at: https://bit.ly/3nFkUVr
AAA Valuation Comment: According to filings made with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Urban Company issued 2,613 equity shares and 50,490 compulsory convertible preference shares (CCPS). This latest round of capital infusion takes Urban Company into the coveted unicorn club as it was last valued at around $933 million during its funding round in 2019. The Company formerly know an UrbanClap is the 12th startup from India to have entered the coveted $1 billion valuation club this year
The second-largest company in the Ed tech segment after Byju’s, Unacademy is all set to score a new round at a higher valuation. The company is in talks to raise fresh financing with about $1 billion premium in its valuation. SoftBank and D1 Capital Partners are in an advanced stage to invest $100 million in the company at a valuation of $3 billion. It has made over half a dozen acquisitions which include PrepLadder, Mastree, Kreatryx, CodeChef, Coursavy, NeoStencil and most recently management-focused coaching institute Handa Ka Funda.
Read more at: https://bit.ly/3aUh71q’
AAA Valuation Comments: Unacademy claims to have over 500,000 active paid subscribers on the platform as of March 13, 2021. The company has raised around $350 million in primary financing in the past 15 months. With the increase in the online learning environment, access to the global universities distant learning courses, adoption of Edtech adoption due to Covid-19 pandemic, school/universities taking digital routes and other reasons these Edtech companies provides platform to both the tutors and the students and it can be said that these companies will be growing rapidly in comping years.
Accenture has completed the acquisition of Cygni, a Stockholm, Sweden-based cloud-native, full-stack development firm that helps companies transform their business through advanced technical software development services and innovative technical solutions.
Read more at: https://bwnews.pr/3ebfU8e
AAA Valuation comments: It is being that that the acquisition will enhance the global capabilities of Accenture Cloud First. With over 70,000 cloud professionals, and a $3 billion investment over the next three years, the group brings together cloud expertise, industry cloud solutions, ecosystem partner capabilities, and assets that help clients realize greater value from cloud at speed and scale.
AAAVP Monthly Highlights
New Assignments
Assignments Completed
Webinars Conducted by AAA Group
Knowledge Sharing by AAA Group Partners
Interesting Trivia