Indian game-streaming startup bags $2m from Lightspeed, Sequoia’s Surge

Indian e-sports and community platform Rheo announced that it has raised US$2 million in seed funding from Lightspeed, Sequoia Capital India’s scale-up program Surge, and marquee angel investors.

Rheo founders / Photo credit: Rheo

Launched in August 2019, the startup allows more than 100 different games to be streamed on its platform to date, including PUBG, Free Fire, and Call of Duty. It says that within four months of launch, the platform has already attracted more than 5,000 streamers who generate more than 900 hours of live content every day in five regional languages.

Rheo said that it aims to promote professional game streaming and to make online gaming more entertaining and engaging.

“Our mission is to redefine the gaming industry in India by using streaming channels as a way to create communities and encourage conversations – for both professional and hobby gamers,” said Saksham Keshri, co-founder and CEO of Rheo. “The ultimate goal is to make online gaming as entertaining and engaging as cricket and Bollywood in India – with an added layer of monetization.”

The app is currently available for Android users, allowing them to earn “Rheo Coins” through various activities. They can then use the coins to play with other gamers or redeem virtual goods across multiple games.

Rheo also hosts its own invite-only tournaments.

According to Surge, India has nearly 200 million active gamers on mobile phones to date. Ubiquitous internet infrastructure and affordable smartphones are leading to an increasing popularity of multiplayer online gaming in India.

“Gaming is the new prime time – people are spending over 60 [minutes] daily, between 6 pm to 12 am. India is no longer just a casual gaming market – even mobile mid-core titles like PUBG have seen a meteoric rise from 6 million to 60 million+ MAUs [monthly active users] over just a few months,” Vaibhav Agrawal, partner at Lightspeed, said.