Khel Now, which claims to be the world’s first social mobile platform for sports, has today announced that it has raised around $350,000 in funding from the Anglian Omega Network. Anglian came on board as a strategic investor in this round and has also taken on an advisory role in the company.
With the latest cash infusion to the company, Khel Now intends to attract more users and partners, as well as to build upon its existing offerings. The company is also planning to integrate its platform with sports technology solutions and other social networks, including Facebook, Google, Twitter and others.
As part of this deal, Khel Now will be able to leverage Anglian’s huge network of more than 1 million Facebook and Twitter followers and business partners, including professional football clubs and athletes, as well as grassroots academies and coaches.
Speaking on the investment, Sunny Narang, Chairman, Anglian Omega Network said,
I have been extremely impressed with the Khel Now team. Their Silicon Valley-based co-founders, one of whom has deep ties to India and Indian sports, combined with their India-based incubation team, is simply a joy to work with. Having worked with many traditional sports businesses and operations we noticed a huge opportunity for a digital sports platform with state-of-the-art mobile and social networking capabilities. Khel Now addresses this gap, especially for those at the grass-roots and amateur levels. For these reasons we decided to invest in, and become a strategic advisor for, the Khel Now team thereby also expanding our sports portfolio in to the mobile, social and digital realm.
The Khel Now team appeared to be similarly excited at the prospect of the collaboration. Commenting on the investment, Dhruv Ratra, Co-Founder and CEO of the company, said,
With this investment, we will be able to continue our growth and attract new users and partners to the global Khel Now Platform. While we have had tremendous success reaching out to engaged fans we want to continue making inroads in to local schools, colleges, youth academies and other grassroots initiatives across India and beyond. In addition to providing the capital we are very pleased that Anglian has agreed to take on an advisory role in our company.
He also expressed his confidence in the Anglian sports network, stating that it will be able to help us expand and scale rapidly.
Khel Now connects sports fans and other stakeholders from around the world using relevant, timely, location-specific and crowd-sourced content and social networking. In just a few weeks after its launch, the platform has expanded to the point that it is now hosting thousands of pages. The content hosted by Khel Now has been accessed by tens of thousands of users across India and beyond. The company has also signed partnerships with professional clubs and sports businesses, local schools, academies, coaches and regional media outlets.
Undountedly, sports is growing rapidly in the country. People are finally getting out of the Just Cricket shell and exploring other popular games such as Football, Tennis etc. According to FIFA, the world governing body of the sport, football is the fastest growing sport in India both in terms of viewer-ship as well as participants. Platforms like Khel Now can certainly encourage and expedite the process.
