Rein Games Pvt. Ltd, a real money-based skill gaming startup, has raised Rs 5 crore (approximately $705,910 at current exchange rates) in a seed funding round led by the family office of Ranjan Pai’s Manipal Education and Medical Group, and Titan Capital, a venture capital firm.
The Noida-based company said in a statement that a few high net-worth individual investors (HNIs) also participated in the round. The company will use the funds to enhance its product development, focus on customer acquisition and strengthen the team.
Vaibhav Gupta, co-founder and chief executive officer at Rein Games, said the startup will focus on providing its investors with a value-oriented and high-quality gaming experience. “We will thus focus on building one game at a time and innovate around that and become a leader in that before moving onto the next game and so forth,” he said.
Separately, Pai said he was confident in his investment in the startup because of its team’s focus on becoming the “undisputed leader” in the real money gaming segment.
Rein Games was set up in 2018 by Vaibhav Gupta, Himanshu Devra, Pranav Choudhury and Nishtha Gupta. The company says it provides a seamless gaming experience to its customers through solutions such as cross-platform capabilities, real-time support, and analytics-driven approaches.
The firm is currently operational in Tier-I, Tier-II, and Tier-III cities in the country, with a large part of its user base hailing from West Bengal. It also claims an app retention rate of 45%.
Deals in the gaming segment
Interest in the fantasy and sports gaming segment has burgeoned of late, especially with the establishment and popularity of leagues for different sports such as the Indian Premier League and the Pro Kabaddi League. However, there has also been a focus on the digital adaptations of popular games such as poker, rummy, snooker and billiards.
The biggest beneficiary of investor capital has been the Mumbai-based gaming firm Dream11 Fantasy Pvt. Ltd, which counts cricketer MS Dhoni as an ambassador. In April, Multiples PE and Vani Kola-led Kalaari Capital sold part of their stake in Dream11 to hedge fund Steadview Capital in a transaction that valued the gaming company at more than $1 billion.
In September, LivePools Pvt. Ltd, a startup whose online platform offers fantasy games based on skill, raised funding from Dan Bilzerian, a professional poker player, and Instagram influencer.
Another firm that has received a significant amount of capital is HalaPlay Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which in March said it raised Rs 40 crore (around $5 million) in a Series A round from mobile game developer Nazara Technologies Ltd and casino gaming company Delta Corp Ltd.
