India’s gaming startup Zupee closes its Series B round with a total corpus of US$102 million

India’s skill-based casual gaming startup Zupee has raised US$102 million in funding in a Series B round, taking its valuation at US$600 million.

The company has also collaborated with with Jio Platforms Limited, India as it looks to expand its operation in the country.

Both new and existing investors joined the funding round, however, the partnership with Jio will bring about the integration of products that could help cater to a wide range of users. Zupee will get access to a strong 450 million user-base of Jio Platforms.

New investors, Tomales Bay Jio Platforms Capital, WestCap Group, Nepean Capital, Matrix Partners India, Orios Venture Partners, and AJ Capital joined the round. Existing investors, including the Smile Group that partnered as a venture builder with Zupee participated in the round.

With the new collaboration, Zupee aims to build an ecosystem that will enable faster distribution of products and services.

Zupee will be using the fresh funding to develop new products, expand into new geographies, and enhance immersive design experiences, while ramping up marketing and recruitment.

“Jio is the perfect partner as we look to penetrate the remotest areas of India all the way to the most disadvantaged people to bring them into the fold. The resonates firmly with our idea of internet of the future which would be open, permissionless”, said Dilsher Singh, founder & CEO at Zupee.

According to the company, more than 150 million 5G handsets are expected to be sold before the commercial launch of 5G in India, “and Zupee is aggressively looking to capture as much of the market as possible with the market as possible with this partnership with Jio.”

About Zupee

Founded in 2018 by Siddhant Saurabh and Dilsher Singh, Zupee specializes in online skill-based games and gamification for learning and skilling.

The company claims that it has registered over 70 million downloads in India. Its offerings include Zupee Gold, Ludo Ninja Gold, Ludo Supreme Gold games for both iOS and Android operating systems. The users also have an option to play games on the web browser.

Zupee is also looking at rolling out new games in several languages, thereby catering to the audience even in tier II and III cities.

In August 2021, the startup had raised US$30 million from WestCap Group and Tomales Bay Capital.