Microsoft in talks to join $100m round of Indian gaming unicorn

Microsoft is in talks to join a US$100 million funding round of Zupee, an India-based gaming platform where users can earn money from tournaments, TechCrunch reported.

The report cited sources who said that Microsoft and Zupee are still in discussions and that the deal may still fall through. If it does work out, Zupee will adopt Azure and other Microsoft cloud services.

Zupee has various games – some with elements of chance – on its platform. The company also has random number generator (RNG) certification to assure the legitimacy of its algorithms.

However, a team at Microsoft reportedly expressed concerns about the negative public perception toward gambling-related games and advised Microsoft against the deal, a source told TechCrunch.

Neither Zupee nor Microsoft commented on the matter.

Zupee, which is based out of New Delhi, is valued at US$600 million, following a US$102 million series B round it completed in January.

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