TradingLeagues Secures $3.5 Million to Expand Fantasy Stock Gaming App
- ByStartupStory | June 7, 2023
TradingLeagues, the fantasy stock gaming application, has successfully secured $3.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round. The investment was spearheaded by Leo Capital, with notable participation from investors such as Jeejeebhoy Family Office and KP Balaraj’s family office (Co-founder of Sequoia India and Westbridge Capital). This significant funding will enable the Bengaluru-based company to expand its user community and improve the overall user experience on its app.
Rain Platforms Inc, founded by Raghu Kumar (Co-founder of Upstox) and Harsh Agarwal (Co-founder of AGacquisitions), introduced its app in December of the previous year. The company has recently confirmed the discontinuation of its previously launched social investment app, TradingRooms.
Although the company is registered in the United States, its primary operations are centered in its Bengaluru office. The gaming application offers users the opportunity to participate in both free and paid fantasy trading leagues, enabling them to test predictions, indicators, develop investment strategies, and enhance their stock market skills. The app primarily focuses on Indian and US stocks, as well as the crypto market. In addition to the platform/entry fee, the stock gaming app generates revenue by retaining a portion of the competition’s prize pool.
Since its launch five months ago, the app has garnered more than 750,000 downloads and is steadily approaching the one million mark. Although the company has not disclosed the exact number of active users, it has revealed that approximately 8% of its users engage with the app on a daily basis, while 60% remain active on a monthly basis.
“The mass majority of Indians don’t have access to the financial markets, and thereby never become aware of the earning potential of the stock markets. TradingLeagues solves this pain point,” said Co-founder Raghu Kumar.
He continues, “Our goal is to introduce crores of Indians to the financial markets, and that too quickly, by leveraging the incredible power of gamification and removing the unnecessary obstacle of opening a brokerage account.”
“We built TradingLeagues as a fantasy gaming app, first and foremost, since it was important to retain traditional gaming elements while introducing users to the financial markets,” says Agarwal, adding, “Existing gamers find our app easy to use since the focus has been to build a highly intuitive user experience. Our near-term goal is to make the app more robust and introduce various exciting product features, which our users have been asking for.”
In recent times, stock gaming applications have faced scrutiny for utilizing stock exchange data for virtual trading and gaming purposes, sometimes obtaining it from unauthorized vendors. Reports says that NSE Data and Analytics Ltd issued notices to several fantasy stock trading apps, demanding an immediate cessation of data usage.
NSE also sought damages for infringing upon its intellectual property rights, as well as compensation for revenue loss and reputational damage. Responding to this, Kumar clarified that their app does not rely solely on exchanges for data. Instead, they acquire market-related information from various sources such as Contract for Difference (CFD) feeds, market reference feeds, and other aggregated data feeds to power their platform.
The company plans to launch the app in the US market in the next 12-18 months. “We are India-focused right now. Once our Series A round goes through, we will work on getting the necessary licenses and launch the app in the US and other markets. This will make TradingLeagues a cross border app, where global users can play against each other in an RMG environment,” said Kumar.
TradingLeagues encounters competition from various stock gaming apps such as BullsSpree, StockGro, Three Dots, and others. The gaming industry in India is projected to grow substantially, reaching Rs 23,100 crore by 2025 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20%, as stated in EY’s 2023 M&E report. India boasts a vast online gaming community, with over 500 million online gamers, of which more than 25% are active paying users.
Rajul Garg, Founder and Managing Partner, Leo Capital, said, “The recent online gaming regulations have increased investor confidence in the market, and we believe the market is ripe for growth. TradingLeagues has a strong founding team and business fundamentals. It has the potential to help Indians experience India’s trillion-dollar financial markets.”
Follow Startup Story
Related Posts
