MPL Acquires Esports Tournament & Streaming Platform GamingMonk

SUMMARY

This acquisition will allow MPL to accelerate bringing to market key national, regional and global tournament IPs and allow MPL to develop a full suite of esports and broadcasting capabilities

The Bengaluru-based startup has also recently launched a banner on its platform titled Esports Arena, under which, it will host esports tournaments in some of its marquee games

Indian gaming startup Mobile Premier League or MPL has acquired New Delhi-based esports streaming platform GamingMonk, which holds esports tournaments across multiple platforms including PC, console and mobile. The amount of the deal wasn’t disclosed.

GamingMonk serves as a community for gamers, allowing them to participate in tournaments across esports titles such as FIFA, Counter-Strike and Call of Duty, also to stream these tournaments across web platforms and engage with other gamers. As of this month, the company claimed to have a registered user base of 1.3 Mn users.

As part of the transaction, MPL has absorbed the complete GamingMonk team. This acquisition will allow MPL to accelerate bringing to market key national, regional and global tournament IPs and allow MPL to develop a full suite of esports and broadcasting capabilities.

“In our mission to serve gamers in India, GamingMonk will augment our efforts in reaching our target audience and engage with our users effectively. With the increased consumption of Esports in the last couple of years and it becoming as competitive as any other sport, it gives us immense pleasure to present our users with the best of games to play, and enjoy their passion for gaming,” said Sai Srinivas, cofounder and CEO at MPL.

The Bengaluru-based startup has also recently launched a banner on its platform titled Esports Arena, under which, it will host esports tournaments in some of its marquee games such as Chess, WCC, Pool, etc. Each of these tournaments will carry a cash prize of INR 10 lakh and entry will be free for all gamers. MPL will also stream the games on its social media platforms to millions of viewers.

The company has claimed that in four such tournaments, the live stream views have crossed 5 Mn.

Founded in 2018 by Sai Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra, MPL employs over 600 personnel with offices in Bengaluru, Pune, Jakarta, and Singapore. It claims to have 70 Mn users in India and another 3.5 in Indonesia. The company has partnered with various game developers and added over 70 games to its platform.

MPL last raised funds in February, worth $95 Mn for its Series D round led by Composite Capital Management and Moore Strategic Ventures, at a valuation of $945 Mn. To date, the company has raised $225.5 Mn in four funding rounds from 15 investors.