Kabaddi Adda, a portal which offers content dedicated to the sport, has raised Rs 1.5 crore (around $215,000 at the current exchange rate) in a seed round of funding from early-stage venture capital firm Artha Venture Fund.
The platform will use the fresh capital to reach out to kabbadi fans across the globe, Artha Venture Fund in a statement. Part of the money will also be channeled towards upgrading user experience and generating content in multiple languages, it added.
Kabaddi Adda, which is operated by Analytiq Sports Technology Pvt. Ltd, lets fans follow their favourite kabaddi players, helps kabaddi teams, federations and academies with recruitment, and enables aspiring kabaddi professionals to hone their skills and find coaches and academies.
The company, which was founded earlier this year by Arvind Sivdas, Dhanya P, Srikanth V and Vikas Gautam, has also built automated systems using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) that are powered to auto-generate score cards, match commentaries and match reports, among others.
“Kabaddi commands an over 70% market share in the non-cricket market, and it caters to the Bharat audience that very few content platforms have had the ability to reach out to," said Anirudh Damani, managing partner at Artha Venture Fund.
Deals in the segment
A few other sports-focused startups have raised funding over the past year or so.
Earlier in January, Fireside Ventures invested in Azani Sports, an active-wear brand for sports apparel, compression gear and footwear.
In January, Delhi-based social gaming platform Rooter Sports Technologies Pvt. Ltd raised Rs 1 crore from Hyderabad-based early-stage investment and scaling platform Anthill Ventures.
In November last year, Noida-based sports app Sportido, operated by IDO Sport Pvt. Ltd, secured an undisclosed amount of funding in a pre-Series A round from early-stage investment group Inflection Point Ventures.
Gurugram-based cricket-focused social gaming platform CricNWin had also raised an undisclosed amount from Chinese accelerator and venture fund ZDream Ventures last year.
Investor
Artha Venture Fund, which is backed by Singularity Holdings and the family office of former BSE director Ashok Kumar Damani, had marked the first close of its debut fund last year.
The venture capital fund had made its debut investment in 2017, backing online peer-to-peer lending platform LenDen Club in a pre-Series A round.
Its second bet was in Chotta Haazri Foods Pvt. Ltd, which operates tea kiosks in Mumbai under the brand Haazri.