Why we invested in Qlan

Games have always been a powerful way to bring people together. As the world increasingly turns to digital platforms, the digital transformation of games has given rise to an entire ecosystem, providing opportunities for new communities, technologies, and businesses to flourish. Today, games continue to unite people in the digital realm.

The gaming community is particularly close-knit, with a deeply rooted sense of camaraderie at its core. This camaraderie is also at the heart of Qlan's mission and the team behind it.

The Team

Founded by Sagar, Navin, Ashwin and Prashant, Qlan is a gamer’s social network designed to connect and engage the gaming and esports community. As avid gamers themselves, the Qlan team has closely witnessed the sector emerge from its infancy in India, making Qlan a solution built for gamers by gamers.

Sagar Nair is the CEO and brings over 10 years of experience in the industry, having worked at Zee Entertainment, Seventy EMG, and Laqshya Event Capital. He leads business development and partnerships at Qlan.

Navin Talreja is the COO and has over 15 years of experience. He co-founded Impresario Events prior to Qlan and leads operations at Qlan.

Ashwin Muni is the CTO and has over 13 years of experience in software and system engineering. He previously worked at Web18, Xoriant, and Marquistech. Ashwin is responsible for all things tech at Qlan.

Prashant Pandey is the COO and is a former pro gamer who brings a first-hand perspective to product development. He has worked at Jio, NRG Esports, and Nova Esports.

Sagar, Navin and Prashant previously co-founded The Times of Esports, a gaming and esports news portal. This endeavour coupled with their inherent passion for gaming has enabled the team to build a strong network and become a part of the inner circle of gaming. The team brings complementary skillsets to the table and shares a great dynamic, imbibing the same camaraderie that the community at large is known for.

The Market

The Indian digital gaming industry is projected to grow at a 27% CAGR. Today, major tailwinds of affordable data and smartphones as well as the pandemic are driving the sector, paving the way for mass adoption of gaming as an avenue for entertainment and beyond. Esports, a subset of digital gaming, is at the forefront of this growth predicted to grow to an INR 1100 crore industry by 2025 with a 46% CAGR. The potential of esports was further accentuated when the Indian government officially recognised esports as a sport, placing it on equal footing with mainstream sports in the country.

Zooming in on #esports, a growth trend can be seen with the number of esports players in India going from 150k in 2021 to 600k in 2022, and expected to reach 1.5 million by 2027. This growth is likely to fuel the rise in the number of esports teams due to predominantly team based esports tournaments. Further, the number of esports viewers is also projected to grow to 130M+ by 2025. With the increase in the number of esports tournaments catering to a large viewer and gamer base, endemic and non-endemic brands are expected to leverage esports viewership to reach a targeted young and engaged audience. In India, non-endemic brands such as PUMA Group , Mountain Dew Ice , Dell Technologies and Bharti Airtel have made strides in the esports industry.

Key revenue channels for the esports ecosystem include brand sponsorships, streaming and broadcasting, merchandising and prize pools. Streaming advertising revenue is expected to quadruple to ?6.5 billion by 2025, generating the largest portion of revenues, followed by tournament sponsorship and leagues revenue expected to reach ?3.5 billion by 2025.

Founder Market Fit

With strong synergies between the Qlan team and the #gaming and #esports markets, the business is well positioned to solve challenges in the space. Qlan has identified a white space and is solving a real problem in the team building and gamer discoverability process, attempting to make a current unorganised process frictionless.

The Problem

Until recently, gaming was viewed as a hobby. With esports gaining traction and the overall gaming market maturing, the industry is evolving - moving from being perceived as a hobby to offering full-time careers. This shift requires a platform where gamers can record their experiences, log their stats, and build profiles - similar to a gamer's resume.

Most esports tournaments are team-based competitions. However, finding a team to play with involves an unorganised process. On one hand, there are horizontal social platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and on the other hand, there are large community platforms like WhatsApp and Discord. Both solutions don't solve the market need from a focused gaming perspective. This gap brought the need for a dedicated gaming social platform - one that enables players to build their profiles and match with other players to build rosters and compete.

Moreover, with the rise in esports athletes, teams and tournaments, a social and community first platform will bring these stakeholders together.

Qlan

Qlan is a solution-driven social networking platform for gamers and esports enthusiasts that facilitates discovery. On Qlan, gamers can create customised profiles, consume and share gaming content, match with like-minded and skilled gamers, earn rewards, and more. The platform enables gamers to build teams and discover tournaments to participate in. With a dedicated network for a currently fragmented community, Qlan will offer a steady stream of gaming-related content and play an important role in recognising esports athletes as professionals.

Qlan’s vision is to create a sustainable gaming and esports ecosystem that makes it easy for grassroots gaming and esports aspirants to enter and discover opportunities, and to unite all industry stakeholders to organically facilitate value exchange. As gaming percolates to tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India, the Qlan team is excited about building for Bharat. With the belief that there is much value to be unlocked for this customer segment, positioning Qlan as a business building for Bharat will enable them to build relatability and strong defensibility.

The Indian gaming industry today offers incredible opportunities for innovative businesses like Qlan to grow and thrive, and we believe that Qlan is in an excellent position to achieve this. We are excited to work with the Qlan team as they continue to push the boundaries of esports and gaming in India.

At CIIE.CO, we are excited about gaming and esports in India. The space has been familiar to us with past investments in gaming studios including Rolocule , Mech Mocha and HashCube . Today, as major tailwinds drive the sector, we built an investment thesis with insights into the trends and market.

Read here:

Gaming - https://go.ciie.co/Gaming

Esports - https://go.ciie.co/Esports

Going forward, we hope to back more game changing founders building innovative solutions in gaming from India, for India and the world. Write to us at [email protected]. Learn more about us at?ciie.co.