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India’s Loco has raised $42 million led by South Korea’s early-stage venture fund, Hashed, as a gaming frenzy takes hold in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people. New investors including Makers Fund, outsourcing billionaire Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, and Korea Investment Partners participated in the Series A round, along with existing investors such as Krafton Inc., Lumikai Ltd. and Hiro Capital, the live-streamed games company said in an announcement on Thursday.
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The capital infusion will take the two-year-old startup’s valuation to about $200 million, said two people familiar with the deal who didn’t want to be named. A spokeswoman for Loco Interactive Pte, as the company is officially called, declined to comment on the valuation.
The funds will support acceleration in streaming technologies, content creation and developing the gamer and creator ecosystem, Loco said in its release.
“India has 400 million gamers currently,” said Anirudh Pandita, co-founder of Loco, in a Zoom interview. “Younger Indians are spending a significant amount of time in the virtual world, and gaming is breaking urban and rural boundaries.” Loco’s daily user numbers have grown over 15 times since January of last year and “live watch hours,” the amount of time users spend on live-streamed games, has grown nearly 80 times, Pandita said.
