India’s leading game-streaming platform Loco said it had secured Rs 330 crore ($42 million) in an investment round led by Hashed. Besides Makers Fund, Catamaran Ventures, and Korea Investment Partners, all investors from the company’s seed round, including Krafton, Lumikai, and Hiro Capital, also participated in this round. The new investment will cement Loco’s current leadership position in game streaming and further accelerate its streaming technology and content initiatives. With this new fundraising, Loco will “continue investing in the development of the Indian gaming ecosystem and nurturing the Indian gaming community”.
“We started Loco with a mission to democratise gaming and this investment will help us make significant progress towards our end goal,” said Anirudh Pandita and Ashwin Suresh, founders of Loco. “Today, we are the platform where gamers go from being newbies to becoming gaming superstars. Loco is actively transforming the entertainment experience for Indian users and we are excited about the new investors joining us in building the future of entertainment.”
Loco has been a pioneer in the live game streaming and esports sector in India, paving the way for gaming to go from a niche hobby to the mainstream national interest. The platform is home to India’s most popular streamers such as Sc0ut, Mavi, Godlike’s Jonathan, Villager Esports, and 8Bit-Thug. Loco has built highly engaged communities across various games including BGMI, Call of Duty Mobile, Clash of Clans, Grand Theft Auto (GTA), and Valiant. The platform houses India’s top esports teams like Godlike, XO, Revenant Esports, and Hyderabad Hydras. It has hosted the country’s largest tournaments in partnership with global publishers like Krafton, Activision, Ubisoft, and Riot Games.
Loco has grown rapidly over the last year, with daily active viewers scaling by 15x, monthly active viewers scaling by 8x, monthly active streamers scaling by 5x, and live watch hours scaling by 78x since Jan 2021. Today, highly active users spend over 1 hour daily on Loco, making it the gaming community’s platform of choice for a seamless streaming and highly engaging fan experience.
The company believes that gaming will define the customer entertainment experience over the next decade. Powered by 5G, gaming will make entertainment more immersive, providing users with immensely enjoyable social experiences in virtual worlds. In addition, Web3 will transform the nature of ownership of virtual goods, allowing fans to participate in the entertainment process in a more meaningful manner than has ever been possible before. With these tailwinds driving consumer behaviour, Loco wants to build the social experience platform for the virtual world, serving the over 700 million Indians who will experience these virtual worlds in the coming years.
