Indian game streaming app Loco nets $9M from investors including PUBG owner Krafton

Indian game streaming app Loco has raised $9 million in seed funding to continue expanding, according to a report from GamesBeat.

South Korean company Krafton, which owns popular battle royale shooter PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, took part in the investment round alongside others including Lumikai, Hiro Capital, North Base Media, Hashed, and more. 

The cash will be used to help the Mumbai-based company double down on game streaming, and will also allow it to be spun off from its parent company, Pocket Aces.

Loco has managed to build communities around popular games including FreeFire, Call of Duty Mobile, Valorant, Grand Theft Auto, and Clash of Clans, and also serves as the home of some of India's biggest esports teams and streamers.

Company co-founder Anirudh Pandita said Loco was launched in response to soaring demand for gaming content in India, with players and fans rallying around smartphone titles. 

"During 2019, Indian gaming had a fundamental inflection point. Fueled by high penetration of cheap mobile internet and affordable smartphones, Indian consumers took to gaming in ways they had not done earlier,”said Pandita. .

“Pre-2019, hypercasual games dominated the charts but post-2019 mobile arcade games like Battlegrounds IP and Freefire, came into their own. Over 100 million users were actively playing these games on a monthly basis. The demand for gaming content started to climb but there was no platform that brought streamers and viewers together. The Indian gaming community was clamoring for something homegrown and we released Loco as an answer to that."

Moving forward, Loco intends to serve its burgeoning community by accelerating product development, investing in its streamer base, and supporting original content.