SparSkills Technologies, the owner and operator of online poker platform 9stacks has raised funds amounting to Rs 28 crore in Series A funding round. This particular round was led by early-stage venture capital firm, WaterBridge Ventures.
The funds raised through this funding round will be used by the company to expand its team, and further build its technology platform. Prior to this funding, 9stacks raised Rs 10 crore from a clutch of angel investors last December.
“We have sharp focus on analytics. Therefore some of the money will go towards deepening that side, as we get more into machine learning. We are looking at newer markets, therefore some of the proceeds will go towards that,” Sudhir Kamath, chief executive of 9stacks stated.
Founded in 2017 by Kamath, 9stacks is a 14-year old company. Prior to this, Kamath headed oil and gas exploration company Suntera Energy. The company claims to have a monthly active user base ranging between 5,000-10,000.
“India is at the cusp of massive online gaming adoption with an exponential increase in players and revenue expected in this sector. Real money gaming will have a significant wallet share of online due to ubiquitous mobile access, increasing disposable income, convenience and superior user experience,” Manish Kheterpal, managing partner at WaterBridge Ventures stated.
The development follows a favorable judgement that online fantasy sports platform Dream11 won from the Punjab and Haryana High Court in April this year. The court had held that playing fantasy games required considerable skill, judgement and discretion, and cannot be considered gambling.