Hyderabad-based game development company Head InfoTech India Pvt Ltd, which operates online gaming firm Ace2Three, has raised $73.7 million (Rs 474 crore) in a fresh round of investment led by Canadian private equity firm Clairvest Group, a financial daily reported.
While Clairvest Group invested about $40 million, thus picking majority stake in the online rummy portal, the remaining capital was put in by a consortium of investors, the report in The Economic Times stated.
The company will use the funds to develop other gaming products within social gaming, which will be launched outside India, Deepak Gullapalli, founder of Head InfoTech, was quoted as telling ET. He also said that the capital was raised at a valuation of $100 million. Gullapalli will continue to head the company whose key focus will continue to be the Indian market.
E-mail queries sent to Head InfoTech India Pvt Ltd seeking confirmation did not elicit a response at the time of filing this report.
Ace2Three.com is an online multi-player gaming portal offering the popular Indian card game rummy. The company claims its game is used by over 8 million online gamers in India and offers players variants of the rummy game, including 2-player and 6-player option games, tournaments, pool games, and more.
The site was launched in 2007 and went commercial in 2008. In 2010, private equity investor Matrix Partners had invested in Head Infotech India.
In one of the notable developments in the online card gaming segment, Pune hospitality firm Delta Corp Ltd acquired Gaussian Networks Pvt Ltd, which operates online poker site adda52.com, in August last year. The cash and stock deal valued the three-year-old startup at around Rs 182 crore.
Founded by IIT-Delhi alumnus Anuj Gupta, the Gurgaon-based firm offers games like rummy, poker, chess, scrabble, golf and pool among others. Its products include adda52.com, adda52rummy.com and adda52mart.com, which are online versions of card games and related products.