Esports and skill gaming platform , Mobile Premier League, has raised its Series E round of funding from Legatum Capital at a pre-money valuation of $2.3 billion.

Existing investors including Sequoia, SIG, RTP Global, Go-Ventures, Moore Strategic Ventures, Play Ventures, Base Partners, Telstra Ventures, and Founders Circle Capital also participated in the round. MPL will use the fresh funds to finance its global expansion, invest in its home-grown technology, and drive continued growth in the Indian market.

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The company claims to have over 85 million registered users globally. It recently began operations in the US and has been operational in Indonesia for two years now.

“This investment is a recognition of the potential of the Indian gaming and esports industry and an endorsement of the capability of MPL to expand globally. MPL’s proven success in India and Indonesia encouraged us to launch in the US, one of the world’s largest gaming markets. Our US operations are off to a promising start and we’re thus fulfilling our resolve to make our platform the esports and gaming hub of the world,” said Sai Srinivas, Co-founder and CEO, MPL.

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“We are seeing strong traction globally as a function of our direct to consumer approach. Our platform strategy allows us to pool user liquidity, enable synchronous competitions, aggregate gaming content, and drive superior matchmaking, which all together enable user retention and monetisation,” said Joe Wadakethalakal, SVP, Corporate Development, MPL

Legatum CEO and new MPL board member, Mark Stoleson , said “Legatum’s investment in MPL is another example of our strategy to invest in world-class teams building world-scale companies that define categories and serve customers with integrity.”

Gaming Monk acquisition

Earlier this year, MPL acquired esports firm Gaming Monk to develop a full suite of esports and live streaming capabilities. In early September the platform announced a partnership with the Play Magnus Group, founded by Chess superstar Magnus Carlsen. With this partnership, MPL will host the official Indian Circuit for players to qualify for the Meltwater Champion Chess Tour. MPL is headquartered in Bengaluru, also has offices in Pune, New Delhi, Jakarta, Singapore, and New York.

MPL has worked with numerous game developers and on-boarded over 70 games on its platform. It was founded in 2018 by Sai Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra. The gaming platform currently employs over 800 personnel across Bengaluru, Pune, Jakarta, Singapore and New York.

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