9Stacks raised $3M in series A funding

Indian online poker room 9Stacks claims that it made a history, as it is the first poker-only platform, which finished a series A funding round.

On Monday 9Stacks announced that it has got 28 crore (43million USD) in the round led by WaterBridge Ventures and the startup’s existing investors. According to the words of 9Stacks representatives, the room has an active user base of 100,000 people. 9Stacks has not only 100,000 user base, but also 3 mln hands played each month.

WaterBridge Ventures Managing Director Manish Kheterpal says:

“India is at the cusp of massive online gaming adoption with an exponential increase in players and revenue expected in this sector. Real-money gaming will have a significant wallet share of online due to ubiquitous mobile access [in India], increasing disposable income, convenience and superior user experience.”

9Stacks will use the money for acquiring new users, implementing data analytics, upgrading machine learning, product development and market expansion. The platform expects to become the leading site for online poker players in India.

“With Waterbridge Ventures becoming the lead investor in our series A fund raise, we are delighted to announce that 9stacks is India’s first online poker company to reach this funding milestone,” says 9stacks CEO Sudhir Kamath. “This is a great sign of confidence in the 9stacks team, the systems and processes we’ve put in place, in addition to the rapidly growing market.”

The poker startup was launched in 2017 and has already taken 25 players to the 2018 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. two of these players were in the top 100 in this event.

9Stacks advocates heavily poker as a game of skill in India. It has recently introduced the first “skills dashboard” in the country. This dashboard will enable players to make deep analysis of their game strategies. Poker in India is illegal in some states, and there is a large debate on whether it should be considered the game of skill or luck.