Game streaming startup Loco gets funds from PUBG firm
Loco, an Indian streaming platform for video games, received $9 million from investors, including South Korean gaming company Krafton Inc in its first fundraising effort to capitalise on the growing popularity of games-based entertainment in the South Asian nation.
The Mumbai-based startup was also backed in its seed round by Lumikai Ltd, India's first gaming media fund, Londonbased Hiro Capital and early stage investors including 3one4 Capital and Axilor Ventures.
Loco will use the funds to upgrade its technology and content, the startup said in an announcement on Monday.
Livestreaming of games has been popularised globally by the likes of Amazon.com Inc's Twitch in the US and DouYu International Holdings Ltd and Huya Inc in China. In India—which has no legacy of gaming on consoles or desktops— the genre received a boost during the pandemic, as the hundreds of millions locked indoors turned to their smartphones for entertainment. Krafton's PUBG Mobile, previously distributed in India by Tencent Holdings Ltd, had been among the most popular games in the country before it was banned last year and is now re-entering the market.
"Cheap data and inexpensive phones brewed a perfect situation in India, creating a completely new category of entertainment," co-founder Anirudh Pandita said in an interview. "Over 100 million monthly active users in India engage with these games, imagine a 100 million people playing a sport that no one's watching— that's what Loco set out to solve for."
Loco Interactive Pte, as the startup is officially called, was founded by Pandita and Ashwin Suresh, who met as engineering undergraduates at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. The duo went on to work on Wall Street before starting Pocket Aces Pvt Ltd, a digital studio creating streaming content to provide an alternative to traditional television entertainment. The gaming startup will be spun off from Pocket Aces with this funding, the statement said.
Loco has expanded rapidly in the past year, with monthly active users growing six times and monthly active streamers increasing 10 times. Its main competitor is YouTube, the startup said.
Loco has a roster of the country's most bestknown streamers playing popular games such as Clash of Clans, FreeFire and Call of Duty Mobile. It also hosts top esports teams. It also hosts top esports teams and their tournaments, though the genre remains a niche in India.