With Eye On Global Market, MPL Sets Up $5 Mn Fund For Game Developers

Bengaluru-based mobile esport platform Mobile Premier League (MPL), on Tuesday (November 17), announced INR 37 Cr ($5 Mn) fund for Indian game developers and studios to develop their games for a national and international audience. The fund will be open to all developers and studios.

MPL will soon launch a single-window online console for game developers to apply for the fund as well as to submit their games to the company for screening and publishing.

The company also announced INR 10 Cr in revenue for 10 of its game developers in a year between November 2019 to October 2020. These developers had signed a revenue-sharing agreement with MPL, which allowed the developers to monetise their games through MPL’s cash tournaments and contests.

“MPL’s unique platform model offers game developers the chance to monetise right from day 1 of publishing. We are privileged to have partnered with talented game developers from all over the country and are glad that our platform helped them monetise their games,” Shubham Malhotra, cofounder of Mobile Premier League said.

One of these 10 developers was Hyderabad-based Yesgnome, which published the Cricket Clash game on MPL. It is one of the most-played games on the MPL platform and garnered over 41 Mn gameplays between April and October 2020. Other developers receiving this INR 10 Cr payout are Quiz game’s developer Qunami and Auto Raja’s developer BornMonkie.

MPL has onboard over 70 games on its app since its inception in 2018, It has also partnered with established as well as independent game developers from across India to help them monetise their game and open a new revenue stream. The mobile esports company has more than 6 Cr (60 Mn) users in India.

The company was founded in 2018 bySai Srinivas Kiran G and Shubham Malhotra, who had earlier worked together on Bengaluru-based media streaming technology startup Creo which was acquired by messaging service Hike in August 2017. MPL is a mobile application for users to play mobile games with real money.

It allows users to choose from games ranging from cricket to CandyCrush or TempleRun and select a tournament according to their budget. The user, who managed to stay in the game for a certain pre-decided duration defeating other players, wins.

Earlier in September, MPL raised $90 Mn in a Series C funding round led by SIG Ventures, RTP global and MDI Ventures. Sequoia India, Go-Ventures and Base Partners had participated in this round. The company has nearly raised $130 Mn across multiple rounds.