New Delhi: Tournafest, a one-stop destination for the gamer community of India, has secured pre-seed funding of 3.05 crores from a clutch of investors and angels. The Rajasthan-based start-up was founded in April 2021 by fresh graduates of IIT Roorkee. Investors in this round include India Quotient, FirstCheque, Maninder Gulati (Global CSO Oyo Rooms), Abhinav Sinha (Global CPO and COO Oyo Rooms), and other prominent angels.
The founding members, and 2021 graduates of IIT Roorkee, Ayush Agarwal, and Kaustubh Trivedi, are assisted by Utkarsh Yadav, Arun Jhajharia, and Shubham Bhardwaj to conceptualize and establish Tournafest. The team comprises regular gamers with working experience in Esports’ diverse functions along with marketing, design, and the technical and software side.
Tournafest is exclusively designed for the fast-growing gamer community of India. It aims to provide gamers with the opportunity to compete in tournaments and practice scrims hosted by leading gaming communities of India. The gamers are part of a collaborative community of enthusiasts and can showcase their performance on the platform. At the same time, Tournafest enables organizers to conduct scalable Esports tournaments seamlessly and exhibit their verified progress to corresponding sponsors.
Esports has gradually emerged as one of the most lucrative industries in recent years, especially post-pandemic. The gaming market in India is anticipated to be valued at $7B by 2026 and has made its mark in mainstream sporting tournaments such as the Asian Games.
Anand Lunia, General Partner, IndiaQuotient stated, “For esports to become democratic, the tournaments have to move out of fancy pubs and go into every phone in every lane of the country, like street cricket of the future. Ayush and Kaustubh are gamers by heart, coders by skill, and platform creators by vision. IndiaQuotient backs them to join the leagues of Bharat first platforms like Sharechat, Bharat Agri, and Lokal.”
“During our college days, gaming was not streamlined, and formal tournaments were practically unheard of. Certainly, an opportunity was hidden behind this issue. We want to reinvent how the Esports ecosystem works and move towards creating a collaborative and motivating platform where discoverability and scalability are fundamental. We believe that every gamer’s skills should be recognized and respected, and this platform will deliver just that to this growing community.” added Ayush Agarwal and Kaustubh Trivedi, the founders.
