Game streaming platform Loco raises Rs 330 crore in funding round led by Hashed

Game streaming platform Loco on Thursday said it has raised USD 42 million (about Rs 330 crore) in a Series-A funding round led by crypto firm Hashed, with participation from Makers Fund, Catamaran Ventures and Korea Investment Partners.

All the investors from the company's seed round, including Krafton, Lumikai and Hiro Capital, also participated in this round.

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"We raised USD 9 million in seed round last year and this is the USD 42 million round. Hashed is an existing investor. It participated in the seed round as well," Loco co-founder Ashwin Suresh said.

He added that the fund will be utilised for improving game, streaming experience, building Web3 technology capability and improvising online gaming tournaments in India.

Loco has built a direct API integration with Krafton, enabling the two companies to re-imagine play and watch journeys for fans. The company is also in the process of building in-game integrations with other international partners. In addition to these partnerships, Loco has teamed up with global giants like the NBA, Logitech and Red Bull to run India-focused e-sports programmes, the company said in a statement.

Suresh said Loco has not started monetising the platform as it is just focussing on building user base and engagement.

"We will keep scaling DAU (daily active users), MAU (monthly active users), time spend on platform, amount of streamers, etc. We have not defined the threshold level when we will start monetising but we will

Loco co-founder Anirudh Pandita said the company expects to get 100 million monthly active users in another three years by ramping up the platform.

"We will look at growing our user base by five to 10 times. Given the market size in India, our platform can grow to 100 million monthly users in the next three years. There are other geographies that are looking for us to come there," Pandita said.

Made-in-India gaming platform Loco hosts games from Sc0ut, Mavi, Godlike's Jonathan, Villager Esports, 8Bit-Thug, Ghatak, Kaztro Gaming, Eagle GamingOP, S8ulSid, Clutchgod, Kaashvi and Xyaa.

Loco has also built communities across various games, including BGMI, Call of Duty Mobile, Clash of Clans, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and Valorant.