Gaming platform BuyStars raises $5M in pre-series A led by Lumikai and others

Indian sports collectibles and skill gaming company BuyStars has secured $5 million in a pre-series A funding round led by Lumikai, Chiratae and Leo Capital.

The funding will be allocated towards product development and growth, including launching new games on the platform.

The company founded in 2021 by Aman Satija and Sriram Krishnamoorthy who are veterans of the Indian Real Money Gaming (RMG) industry, having held product and marketing leadership positions at some of the country’s leading RMG companies.

BuyStars has now raised a total of $9 million following the pre-series A funding round.

The company offers multiple skill games like fantasy, player trading, trump cards etc., seamlessly integrated to provide utility to collectibles available on the platform.

BuyStars uses deep game mechanics built upon a robust economy, involving the trading of cricket player cards. It allows users to play games on the platform encouraging all-season and year-long play. This skill-based approach and utility is aimed to remove seasonality and speculation of fantasy games, leading to healthy long-term player engagement and retention.

BuyStars aims to remove seasonality and speculation from fantasy games to create long-term player engagement and retention.

The company claims that it has amassed 1.5M registered users and a monthly GMV north of $1 million till date.

Aman Satija, CEO & Co-founder of BuyStars said, “BuyStars was started with a mission to disrupt how cricket fans engage with games today. We are extremely pleased that our efforts are getting recognised. While funding is never a testament to a company’s success, however, when experienced investors decide to back a company, it’s definitely a great validation of the mission one started with and a tribute to the hard work of a team which came together to build it.”

Salone Sehgal, Founding General Partner, Lumikai said, “Globally, the sports collectibles market is valued at $5.4B annually with sports cards trading growing at nearly 140% year-on-year in terms of volume. In India alone, skill based real money gaming and fantasy sports segment accounted for $1.5B of the $2.6B gaming industry in FY22, growing at a 25% 5-year CAGR. Aman and Sriram’s thesis around driving engagement and long-term retention via leveraging collectibles and trading cards for a fantasy focused audience base is deeply compelling. Product-led innovation in this segment is necessary to disrupt incumbents and unlock value. The team’s unique insights, deep expertise combined with current user traction already reveal early potential.”