Mobile gaming start-up Turnip on Thursday said it has raised USD 12.5 million in a Series-A funding round co-led by Greenoaks and Elevation Capital. The round also had participation from SEA Capital and Vibe Capital.
Investors such as Andreessen Horowitz general partner Andrew Chen, Razorpay founders Harshil Mathur and Shashank Kumar, Notion COO Akshay Kothari, and Streamyard co-founder Geige Vandentop (Streamyard) participated in the funding round, the company said in a statement. Other investors included Meesho founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamoorthy, and Udaan co-founder Sujeet Kumar, it added.
The company plans to use the fresh funds to scale its presence across geographies as it aims to become the top gaming community platform in India, SEA, and LATAM by the end of 2022. It will also continue to strengthen its talented team and onboard the best tech, design, and growth leaders worldwide, the statement said. The company stated: “Our goal is to build from India for the more than two billion gamers spread across the world. Gamers have been early adopters of technologies and this has created some of the most innovative and immersive consumer products globally Discord, Streamlabs, Unity, Twitch, and Axie Infinity, etc.”
The firm wants to continue on this same legacy and become the global default home for mobile gaming communities, the statement said. Founded in April 2020, Turnip claims to have grown its user base from 2,50,000 users in November 2020 to more than 50 lakh users in 2021. “Though Turnip began with India, it is quickly becoming a truly global consumer product. Already, 45 per cent of the company’s five million users are from outside of India, spanning geographies including Southeast Asia, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa, the US, and Europe,” the statement said.
Elevation Capital previously led the seed round of USD 1.6 million in the Bengaluru-based start-up last year, with participation from Better Capital. “We deeply believe in the future of mobile gaming communities that Pooja and Aditya are building. Turnip’s spectacular growth and global reach in the past year further cements our belief in their vision and we are thrilled to reaffirm our partnership in this latest funding round,” Elevation Capital partner Mayank Khanduja said.
