Hyderabad-based cricket gaming startup Hitwicket on Thursday said it has secured fresh funding of $3 million (around Rs 24 crore) from venture capital firm Prime Venture Partners.
The firm plans to use the fresh funds to further scale up its features on multiplayer access to help gamers strategize in real-time and play against each other. In line with the fundraise, it has also launched a multiplayer cricket strategy game Hitwicket Superstars.
Founded by Keerti Singh and Kashyap Reddy in 2015, Hitwicket is a cricket gaming app designed for users to plan their strategy in order to win instead of a swipe-action. The startup says that on its platform gamers play on every ball and score accordingly.
Hitwicket has over three million gamers across 100 countries with more than 30% users from outside India and from over 200 cities in India.
“Hitwicket is designed exclusively for cricket fans across the globe who are looking to move away from the conventional bat and ball gameplay by engaging in a much more engaging format that involves strategy and deep thinking. We are committed to offer varied Hitwicket experiences for our fans and the global cricket community in the months to come,” said Singh.
“India is witnessing a massive growth in the gaming industry. Users between the ages of 20 and 40 form the bedrock of gaming and esports communities worldwide and India is one of the most interesting global gaming markets. Hitwicket is pushing the envelope on innovation in gaming by hosting India’s first and one-of-a-kind Esports Mobile Gaming Cricket Tournament for Cricket fans from across the globe,” said Shripati Acharya, managing partner, Prime Venture Partners.
Started in 2012, Prime Venture Partners is an India-focussed early-stage firm with an Indian advisory office led by Shripati Acharya, Sanjay Swamy, Bala Parthasarathy and Amit Somani. Formerly called AngelPrime, it was renamed to Prime Venture Partners in 2015.
Prime Venture Partners had launched its Mauritius-based first fund of $8 million in 2012. The early-stage investor closed its second fund worth $46 million in 2016, and closed its Fund III in 2018 at $72 million. Early this year, VCCircle reported that it had marked the final close of its fourth fund at $120 million, exceeding its target corpus of $100 million.
Electric two-wheeler platform BattRE has raised an undisclosed seed capital from a group of investors led by Agility Ventures, with former Tata Motors’ executive Gajendra Chandel.
The Jaipur-based startup will use the fresh money to fuel its growth. It aims to hit Rs 1,000 crore revenue by FY 25.
BattRE, founded in 2017, provides innovative e-bicycle and e-scooter solutions to tackle the issues raised by carbon footprints, noise pollution and the hassle of traffic.
“Our electric two-wheelers (E2W) are riding on our strategic differentiators – deep distribution, competitive pricing with advanced features. With our ahead-of-the-curve products, we aim to reach every Indian district by 2025,” said Nishchal Choudhary, founder and chief executive officer, BattRE.
“EVs are the future of mobility and is poised to reach $13.8 billion market size by 2027 growing at a 100% CAGR and we are confident that BattRE would dominate the two-wheeler space in that segment with their deep distribution and competitive pricing strategy. We are confident that BattRE will be amongst the top four E2W companies in India by FY 23-24,” said Dhianu Das, founder, Agility Ventures.
As per a report, venture capital and private equity companies have invested $666 million across 24 deals in the Indian electric mobility industry this year till July.
The report titled ‘Electrifying Indian Mobility’ by IVCA-EY-Induslaw also highlights that in the last two years, there have been investments to the tune of $550 million, a jump from the funding received in 2019 ($390 million) in EV manufacturers like Ola Electric, Euler, Ather Energy for the development of newer and safer electric vehicles.
