Rooter Secures $16 Million Funding from Lightbox and Other Investors for Game Streaming Startup

• ByStartupStory     |    May 19, 2023

Rooter, a gaming platform, has secured $16 million in a recent funding round spearheaded by Lightbox, a Mumbai-based venture capital firm. The funding round consisted of a combination of equity and debt and attracted the participation of Trifecta Capital, Pivot Ventures, Baldota Family Office, Global Play Media, Denlow Private Trust, Venture Catalysts, and Potential Ventures. Notably, existing investors such as Duane Park Ventures, LeAD Sports & Health Tech Partners, Advantage VC, Goal Ventures, Capital A, and Astarc Ventures also contributed to the funding round.

In the wake of the recent funding round, Rooter has expressed its intention to utilize the raised capital to bolster its technological capabilities, enhance its product offerings, and optimize the user experience on its platform. Furthermore, the company plans to leverage the funding to facilitate the acquisition of new ventures in the near future, with the aim of expanding its presence and influence in the domestic market.

Established in 2016 by Piyush Kumar and Dipesh Agarwal, Rooter is a digital platform dedicated to esports streaming and content provision. Boasting an impressive user base of more than 60 million, Rooter offers a diverse content library encompassing live streams, bite-sized content, and videos spanning ten different Indian languages.

To date, Rooter has successfully raised more than $46 million through multiple funding rounds. Notably, its Series A round in January of the previous year, spearheaded by Lightbox, accounted for $25 million of the total funding. Rooter has set its sights on becoming the Indian equivalent of Twitch, the renowned live streaming platform based in the United States.

Rooter experienced a significant increase in net loss during FY22, soaring 3.6 times to reach INR 40.7 Cr compared to INR 11 Cr in FY21. On the other hand, revenue from operations witnessed a remarkable surge of over 6.6 times, reaching INR 11.3 Cr from INR 1.7 Cr in FY21. Despite the challenging funding climate, Rooter stands out as one of the few Indian startups successful in securing fresh funds in both 2022 and 2023. The company faces competition from prominent players in the market such as FanClash, Loco, Winzo, and Krafton.

The gaming industry in the country is projected to reach $8.6 billion by FY27, as per Lumikai’s report. However, the sector is currently facing layoffs and increasing losses. Earlier this year, gaming unicorn MPL terminated over 100 employees and withdrew from Indonesia. FanClash, backed by Sequoia, also laid off more than 75% of its workforce due to difficulties in securing new funding.

MPL experienced a threefold increase in losses, reaching $149 million in FY22, while its revenue from operations was $65.6 million. Winzo, another gaming platform, reported a net loss of INR 120.5 crore, which was a 2.3-fold increase from FY21. Its revenue from operations also rose 2.3 times to INR 233.8 crore in FY22.

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