SG sports and fintech-oriented game developer Beryllium nets $3m funding

Beryllium, a Singapore-based sports and financial technology (fintech) oriented game development startup, has announced raising $3 million in a pre-Series A funding round that will finance its expansion.

The funding round, which followed a $600,000 Seed round in November, was led by venture capital investor Bullpen Capital and participated by Singapore-based Genting Ventures and Velo Partners.

Beryllium, founded by Amay Makhija in 2019, operates a platform that introduces trading systems to fantasy sports. It aims to engage and educate the younger generation on how trading works through fantasy sports, a topic that it said is more exciting among young people.

The platform allows users to buy and sell fantasy stocks in athletes, thereby introducing them to the ins and outs of financial trading.

Fantasy sports is one of the fastest-growing markets around the world. According to Allied Market Research, the fantasy sports market was valued at $18.9 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach a valuation of $46.7 billion in 2027 globally.

In India alone, the number of fantasy sports users has seen exponential growth, from two million users in 2016 to more than 100 million last year – an increase of over 50 times.

Beryllium recently launched its first branch, Sixer, which revolves around the concept of fantasy cricket in India.

“We aim to engage and empower the younger generation with knowledge on how trading works and hope to add value to this space by creating a platform that guarantees a seamless user experience,” said Amay Makhija, founder of Beryllium.

The startup said it will use the fresh capital to expand its team and engineering resources, while also allowing the firm to explore and facilitate more product avenues, game formats, and features.

Beryllium aims to expand the product globally, while further developing its local Singapore tech headquarters.

The lead investor, Bullpen Capital, is challenging the traditional model of venture capital as the pioneer in “post-seed funding”, the critical round between Seed and Series A.