Rooted to Succeed
In a world where gaming is the leading simulation to mind and sports serve as a great distraction from stress, it is not surprising that companies are constantly aiming to capture the industry. Rooter is one platform that has seen increasingly successful rounds of funds every single time; and the CEO of the brand, Piyush Kumar says, he can only see the graph go up year after year.
Touted to be the largest Indian game streaming platform, Rooter is a game streaming and E-sports platform with more than half a billion users to its credit. The app bagged the number one app in the “sports” category, on Google Play and has held the position since October 2020. Founded in 2016 by Piyush Kumar and Dipesh Agarwal, the platform initially served as a social stream focusing on sports content in regional languages. By April 2020, the brand had pivoted to game streaming and subsequently scaled up by creating a community of game streamers who can create and use the content of the platform.
Game streaming is the new norm.
The reason for the tremendous growth of Rooter is the rate of consumption of two elements: gaming and content. Since content is one of the most sought-after in the digital era, it is no surprise that combined with the gaming arena there is plenty more of where it came from. Piyush believes it is the reason they have seen only an upwards graph since they started. With over 14 years of experience, Piyush graduated from Delhi University and worked in Dish TV before heading marketing for Rado watches. The entrepreneurship bug hit him around 2016 when he began Rooter. When asked about the revenue model for the app, Piyush explained that the revenue on the platform comes from multiple opportunities.
Firstly, Rooter was one of the pioneers in monetizing the game streaming and sports platform space. Adopting a performance-based marketing model, the company ties up with multiple games and sporting events for use on the platform. For users, the platform is free, of course, wherein they also earn Rooter currencies which can be used to buy accessories at the Rooter shop which in turn is B2B marketing since it is partnered with brands that want to sell their products on the platform. The other opportunity is in-platform advertising and influencer marketing.
Investing in the next big thing
Since a couple of years ago, the gaming market has grown from 300 million gamers to almost 500 million gamers during the pandemic period and is slated to reach 700 million gamers in another 2 to 3 years. Rooter alone sees about 8.5 million monthly active users and over 30 million downloads. For Piyush, Rooter is all set to add 500,000 game streamers over the completion of this year. It is thus no wonder that Piyush sees a steady flow in income as well as funding with many lining up to optimize the gaming sector, and Anthill Ventures is one of the major players doing so. Recognising potential, Anthill Ventures invested in Rooter, marking another milestone for the venture capitalist firm in the sports technology and media and entertainment space.
Having been supported during crucial times with connections to corporates and investors, Anthill Ventures has played a key role in Rooter’s journey. It was the brand’s ability to recognise Piyush’s premonition on how the gaming and content industry is going to play out. Anthill has the keen ability to identify favourable venues and futuristic tech companies that ride the bandwagon of trends.