Founders go through a lot of rejection: Harsh Jain, Dream11
Harsh Jain, the Co-founder of Dream11, says he faced about 150 rejections from investors before the fantasy gaming platform was able to raise its first round of capital.
Dream11 Co-Founder and CEO Harsh Jain says he faced about 150 rejections before the fantasy gaming platform was able to raise its first cheque.
The platform, which was founded in 2008, initially raised funds from friends and family but ran out of cash as achieving virality and scale took a few years.
"We thought we would take the world by storm but that did not happen. We did some pivots before we achieved user traction," Jain said at TechSparks Mumbai.
was finally able to raise its first round of venture capital in 2014 from Kalaari Capital and Think Investments. According to Jain, getting one 'yes' from an investor could take many years "but once that happens you will find yourself being chased by almost every venture capitalist".
The platform later saw investors chasing it after it raised its first round of funding, with Tencent joining in 2018, followed by Steadview Capital in 2019.
That year, the startup became India's first fantasy sports platform to become a unicorn, or a company estimated to be worth at least $1 billion. Later, during the pandemic-led funding boom, its parent firm Dream Sports raised $840 million at a valuation of $8 billion.
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti
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