Dream Sports Sign Dev Bajaj as Chief Corporate Development Officer
Dream11 owner Dream Sports have announced that Dev Bajaj has joined the company from Kalaari Capital.
Bajaj will take up the role as chief corporate development officer, having previously worked as a venture capital partner in charge of evaluation and management of early funding across multiple sectors.
These included fintech, gaming, and sportstech, and Bajaj's wealth of experience also includes stints in private equity and investment banking in the USA.
His new portfolio will include leading investment and driving global strategic partnerships in fantasy sports, gaming and other related areas. Bajaj also successfully founded and built the agtech start-up MITRA.
Working closely with the leaders of Dream Sports various brands such as Dream11, FanCode and DreamX, Bajaj will advise on future funding and strategic business planning.
Harsh Jain, co-founder and CEO of Dream Sports, was quoted on Livemint: "Dev's extensive and versatile experience as an investor and entrepreneur over the last decade will help us further build the sports ecosystem in India. With a strong passion for sports, I am sure that Dev will be invaluable in identifying strategic partners and scaling potential sports businesses.
“While Dream11 continues to grow rapidly, Dream Sports is hiring over 250 talented people this year and actively expanding its portfolio of sports businesses. In the last year, we launched FanCode, a multi-sport aggregator platform with 15 million users already, and DreamX, a sports accelerator powering several new start-ups."
Bajaj said: "With $5.5 billion invested in sports tech in Asia, India leads the way with 40% of all sports tech start-ups in Asia, but has received less than 10% of the funding. Dream Sports can address this gap by helping entrepreneurs with capital and digital-product-first DNA.
"Therefore, we believe there are multiple early and growth-stage investment opportunities for us within fantasy sports, gaming and the broader sportstech ecosystem. In my new role, I aim to ensure that start-ups and mid-stage companies find Dream Sports a valuable investor and partner."
Last year Dream11 entered the unicorn club, a term used for start-ups with a valuation of over US$1 billion.
GLAWS published an exclusive interview with Dream11 CEO Harsh Jain in June 2018 where he discussed the company's explosive growth, which shows no sign of slowing down.
