Sports engagement platform Rooter raises pre-Series A funding

Sports engagement platform Rooter Sports Technologies Pvt. Ltd has raised Rs 4.5 crore ($640,000) in a pre-Series A round facilitated by early-stage investment firm and incubator Venture Catalysts, said a statement.

The round facilitated by the incubator saw investors Khalid Al Tawil, Anjali Malhotra, Pranay Nigotiya, Vishal Agarwal, Nishil Agarwal, Tharun Dhariwal, Vivek Awasthi, and others.

The company will use the funds to grow user base, offer multi-lingual experience and launch web products aimed at masses. The company is also eyeing new geographies in South East Asia.

Rooter has also been chosen for Adidas family-backed 2018 leAD Sports Accelerator Program, said Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, president and co-founder at Venture Catalysts.

Rooter was incubated by Venture Catalysts, with a sum of $250,000.

The sports engagement platform, backed by actor Boman Irani, raised an undisclosed amount in 2017 from mobile handset maker Intex Technologies’ early-stage fund. 

Founded in 2016, Rooter covers eight different sports with live scores, chats and commentaries, provides gamified prediction of a match as well as acts as a platform for sports fans. The company claims to have 1.6 million users. 

Similar deals in the space

Earlier this year, Gurugram-based cricket-focused social gaming platform CricNWin had raised an undisclosed amount from Chinese accelerator and venture fund ZDream Ventures.

In August 2017, India Sports Flashes Pvt. Ltd, which operates sports content app Sports Flashes, raised an undisclosed amount from media conglomerate Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL).

Khel Now, a mobile-based social platform for sports, raised $500,000 (Rs 3.4 crore) from Bangkok-headquartered investment firm Indochine International.

*This article has been updated to correct the dollar value in the first paragraph.