Gaming startup Rooter raises $16 million in funding led by Lightbox
Platform for gaming and esports content Rooter has raised $16 million in a growth round of fundraising that was spearheaded by current investor Lightbox. CEO and founder Piyush Kumar indicated that the funding was split 80% in favour of equity and 20% in favour of debt. Trifecta Capital, Pivot Ventures, the Baldota Family Office, and Global Play Media were among the new investors. LeAD Sports & Health Tech Partners, ADvantage VC, and Duane Park Ventures are some of the current investors.
According to Kumar, the Delhi-based business hopes to become profitable by April 2024 and to reach $10 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within the following three months. The startup's current ARR scale is $7 million. According to Kumar, the business would also search for possible acquisitions and pursue international expansion in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. Rooter, which was founded in 2016, states that it has more than a million unique creators per month, 1.6 million daily active users, and 17 million monthly active users.
"We must keep increasing revenue. Second, we need to keep building a very robust creative ecosystem, therefore we need to make technical investments to attract more and more creators to the gaming industry. Third, we'll keep making technology investments to improve the personalization experience, strengthen recommendation engines, and other things. The fourth is that, according to Kumar, "we really want to scale our user revenue contribution on overall income in the next 12 to 18 months.
Rooter began as a network for connecting sports enthusiasts, but it changed its focus to game streaming in 2020 after failing to find a product-market fit. It has previously raised $30 million in fundraising before the current round. A variety of livestreams, short-form content, and videos in more than 10 Indian languages are presently available in Rooter's content repository. The brand adverts for companies like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, H&M, and Adidas account for almost 90% of Rooter's revenue. The remainder is earned by direct users through an internal shop with a gifting-specific currency on the Rooter app.
In the quickly expanding gaming content market in India, Sid Talwar, partner at Lightbox, said, "Rooter has set strong benchmarks on how to strike the balance between growth and operational sustainability - establishing rapid scale while maintaining a healthy balance sheet and strong unit economics." "We particularly like how Rooter has placed itself at the intersection of the needs of brands, streamers, and viewers in the highly dynamic gaming content and esports streaming category they operate in," said Abhishek Gupta, Partner at Trifecta Capital. "They have found success in suitably monetising these avenues."
According to Kumar, the Delhi-based business hopes to become profitable by April 2024 and to reach $10 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) within the following three months. The startup's current ARR scale is $7 million. According to Kumar, the business would also search for possible acquisitions and pursue international expansion in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. Rooter, which was founded in 2016, states that it has more than a million unique creators per month, 1.6 million daily active users, and 17 million monthly active users.
"We must keep increasing revenue. Second, we need to keep building a very robust creative ecosystem, therefore we need to make technical investments to attract more and more creators to the gaming industry. Third, we'll keep making technology investments to improve the personalization experience, strengthen recommendation engines, and other things. The fourth is that, according to Kumar, "we really want to scale our user revenue contribution on overall income in the next 12 to 18 months.
Rooter began as a network for connecting sports enthusiasts, but it changed its focus to game streaming in 2020 after failing to find a product-market fit. It has previously raised $30 million in fundraising before the current round. A variety of livestreams, short-form content, and videos in more than 10 Indian languages are presently available in Rooter's content repository. The brand adverts for companies like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, H&M, and Adidas account for almost 90% of Rooter's revenue. The remainder is earned by direct users through an internal shop with a gifting-specific currency on the Rooter app.
In the quickly expanding gaming content market in India, Sid Talwar, partner at Lightbox, said, "Rooter has set strong benchmarks on how to strike the balance between growth and operational sustainability - establishing rapid scale while maintaining a healthy balance sheet and strong unit economics." "We particularly like how Rooter has placed itself at the intersection of the needs of brands, streamers, and viewers in the highly dynamic gaming content and esports streaming category they operate in," said Abhishek Gupta, Partner at Trifecta Capital. "They have found success in suitably monetising these avenues."
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