Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle has invested an undisclosed amount in gaming startup Fantasy Akhada, and will be the brand’s face for the next two years, the company said on Friday. Fantasy Akhada founder Amit Purohit said that onboarding of Bhogle as an investor will boost subscribers’ confidence towards the platform, while the startup will continue building technology to serve the gamers on the platform.
“I have realized that during a cricket match, everyone wants to join the game. While limited people can play on the ground, several fans engage in the game online through various sorts of games. There fantasy gaming is growing and it is good to invest in something which is growing,” Bhogle told PTI.
The company did not disclose the investment details.
“Besides the growth potential, I like to work with young people who want to make a difference in society with their energy. I was comfortable with people involved in Fantasy Akhada hence I decided to make an investment in the platform,” Bhogle said.
Founded in January 2020, Fantasy Akhada claims to have gained around 100k customers in the last 8 months. “We have a lot of active users. We are very focussed on activities that we do for the retention of users. People want to quick withdrawals of their rewards otherwise they become restless and retaining them becomes a challenge. We want to focus on retention of users and with Harsha coming on board credibility factors go up significantly,” Purohit said.
He said that the company has been monetising service since the beginning of the platform.
“We need to personalize our offering and be very prompt to respond to customer needs to increase subscribers base. We need to burn cash to acquire customers and to build infrastructure to serve them,” Purohit said. Fantasy Akhada claims to be growing by more than 100 percent month on month post the lockdown. The company plans to achieve 10 times growth in the user base this fiscal.