Dream11 geared to raise over $400 Mn at $8.5 Bn valuation

Dream Sports, the company that runs fantasy sports platform Dream11, is in talks to raise at least $400 million in a round with participation from both new and old investors. Dream11 lets its users play fantasy games such as cricket, football, basketball, among others. Dream11 has been in conversation with several new and existing backers to raise $400-600 million in a new round which is likely to be a pre-IPO one. Dream11 will probably be the first consumer internet company to list in the US. Sources said, the company was also weighing to raise $1.5 billion from public listing through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

If this investment goes through, it would again be one of the largest investments in a fantasy sports platform in India and will make Dream11 – fourth-largest valued consumer internet firm after Byju’s, Paytm and Oyo.

Dream Sports last raised close to $400 million from investors such as TCV (an early investor in Netflix), D1 Capital Partners and Falcon Edge in March right before IPL. This was an entirely secondary round where some of the company’s early investors such as Multiples Alternate Asset Management and Kalaari Capital sold a part of their stake while China’s Tencent continued to hold on to its stake in the company.

Dream11 will probably be the first consumer internet company to list in the US. A clutch of companies in India including Paytm, Nykaa and Policybazaar are set for stock exchange debuts. However, these companies have chosen India over listing abroad.