Mobile Premier League bags $35.5mn in round led by Go-Ventures

Indonesian firm Go-Jek's investment arm, Go-Ventures, together with Sequoia India and Times Internet reportedly invested $35.5 million in Indian e-sport start-up Mobile Premier League (MPL), according to the Economic Times. Other investors involved in this funding are RTP Global, Beenext, Base Growth, and Venture Highway. MPL has raised $40.5 million since it was founded in early 2018. Its Series A funding round announced in November last year came from Sequoia Capital, which is also invested in Go-Jek. Although it is relatively new, MPL has grown rapidly with 25 million registered users across both Android and iOS. It's a platform for mobile gamers, focused on casual gaming genres like arcade, adventure games, or sports. The start-up collaborates with third-party developers and publishes the games on its platform. Go-Jek has acquired four Indian companies, Leftshift, Pianta, C42 Engineering, and CodeIgnition, but these were strategic acquisitions intended to boost Go-Jek's tech stack. Go-Jek established a presence in India in 2016, with an engineering facility in Bangalore. Go-Jek will likely continue to strengthen its business in India. Besides MPL, the ride-hailing unicorn is also reportedly in talks to form a joint venture with Rebel Foods, a cloud kitchen company that backs up several online restaurant brands like Faasos and Behrouz Biryani. Go-Jek plans to take the cloud kitchen expertise of Rebel Foods to the Southeast Asian market once the partnership officially established.