Esports fan engagement startup Stan lands $2.5 million from General Catalyst, others

Blockchain-based esports fan engagement startup Stan has raised $2.5 million in seed funding led by General Catalyst and participation from Better Capital and Eximius Ventures, the company said on May 25.

Angel investors, including Coinbase's Nakul Gupta and Opensea's Aadil Mamujee also joined the funding round.

"Having strong partners and investors such as General Catalyst and Better Capital onboard will boost Stan’s aspiration to create superlative fan experiences on the platform and to drive growth for the startup across various levels" co-founder Parth Chadha said.

Started in 2022, Stan's founding team includes EWar Games co-founders Parth Chadha and Rahul Singh, EWar Games executive Nauman Mulla and former FanPlay executive Shubham Gupta. The startup also counts Nodwin Gaming co-founder Akshat Rathee as a founding investor.

Stan has built a platform that allows esports fans to collect, play and trade digital collectibles such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of their favourite esports players and content creators, through which they can win physical and virtual world perks and rewards such as getting a chance to meet their favourite players.

The startup said its platform ensures that the assets can be purchased through traditional in-game currency via a normal in-app purchase, enabling fans to buy these items through fiat currency. It also plans to launch blockchain-based fantasy sports.

"We are attempting not just to enhance overall engagement in the esports fan ecosystem, but also to allow the creators and players to unlock new and innovative ways to interact with their fans, provide collectibles and NFTs and build thriving communities around popular esports titles and games" said Stan co-founder Parth Chadha.

The startup plans to use the funds to launch its platform and partner with prominent gaming organisations and players across India and other countries. The proceeds will also be used to expand the team by hiring design and tech talent, it said in a statement.

Stan said it will initially focus primarily on Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) and Free Fire titles.

The company said it entered into partnerships with several leading Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) creators such as GodLike Esports (‘Jonathan’ Amaral, Abhijeet ‘Ghatak’ Andhare, Abhishek ‘ZGOD’ Choudhary, Vivek ‘ClutchGod’ Horo). It also tied up with FreeFire creators such as Total Gaming (Ajay), Assassins Army (Nayan Raju Shelke) and Desi Gamers (Amit Sharma), with "many more such partnerships on the cards''.

The two consumer spaces that have been among the fastest growing in India in terms of level of innovation, creator energy and mainstream adoption are esports and Web3/NFTs, said Anand Chandrasekaran, Partner, General Catalyst.

“This combination has led to a powerful flywheel for product platforms that unlock innovative engagement and business models for esports players and creators" he said.

In March 2022, General Catalyst had stated plans to beef up investments in India, with focus on Web3, fintech, healthcare, enterprise, consumer, agritech, and crypto. At the time, the firm said it has invested $150 million in India, of which $50 million has been infused in the past three months.

Web3 gaming rush

With growing crypto adoption in India, blockchain and non-fungible token (NFT)-based gaming firms are gaining steam and are expected to be one of the key trends in the sector this year, Moneycontrol reported on December 24.

Among companies eyeing the Web3 gaming space are Nazara Technologies, which plans to build a cricket offering, and Dream11 parent Dream Sports that led $120-million funding into Cricket NFT platform Rario through its corporate venture and M&A arm of Dream Sports

nCore Games recently raised $10 million funding to expand its properties into metaverse and NFTs as well as launch new games in the Web3 and play-to-earn space.

In February, WazirX cofounder Siddharth Menon teamed up with Pune-based game development firm SuperGaming to launch Tegro, a Web3 game ecosystem marketplace.