Ex-Upstox Founder’s Startup TradingLeagues Bags Funding To Build Fantasy Trading Platform

Gamified stock trading platform TradingLeagues has raised $3.5 Mn as part of its Pre-Series A funding round led by Leo Capital. The round also saw participation from other investors such as the Jeejeebhoy Family Office and the family office of Westbridge cofounder KP Balaraj.

The startup will use the funds to further enhance the user experience and fuel organic growth. A big chunk of the capital will go towards growing its customer base to millions of users over the next few years, cofounder Raghu Kumar told Inc42. The investment will also be used to make key hires and further ramp up marketing initiatives.

“We are excited to partner Leo Capital and would like to thank them and our other investors for believing in our vision… 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,” Kumar 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,” said Rajul Garg, the founder of Leo Capital.

Founded in late 2022 by Raghu Kumar (ex-Upstox cofounder) and Harsh Agarwal (AGacquisitions cofounder), TradingLeagues is a skill-based fantasy trading platform. The app allows users to experience financial markets in a gamified environment without the risk involved in actual markets. 

The startup claims to have more than 7.5 Lakh users with 5 Cr games played by users on the platform since its inception in December last year.

The startup claims that its monthly active users (MAUs) stood at around 1.8 Lakh in May. A single user spent more than 26 minutes on the app daily, it added. 

Speaking to Inc42, Kumar said that the platform was witnessing 10-20% month-on-month (MoM) growth in its users. “We are also eyeing a global foray this year and have plans to raise a Series A round in the next few months,” he added.

TradingLeagues operates within the larger fantasy gaming space, which is populated by the likes of unicorns such as Dream Sports, Games24x7 and Mobile Premier League. 

The growth of these platforms has been propelled by increasing smartphone and internet penetration, which has spawned a new generation of gamers in the country. The spurt has come largely on the back of pandemic-era growth. 

According to a report, on average, Indians spent 8.5 hours a week on mobile games in FY22. As a result, the homegrown gaming market has grown manifold. According to another report, India’s gaming market was pegged at $2.6 Bn in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) and is projected to touch $8.6 Bn by FY27.