Adman turned investor Sajan Raj Kurup backs gaming firm Revenant Esports

Adman turned investor Sajan Raj Kurup has made close to a $1 million investment in Revenant Esports. With this investment, Kurup has become a 40 per cent stakeholder in one of the fastest-growing gaming companies in India. Revenant Esports is home to over 25 Esports athletes including various popular mobile titles like Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile, Clash of Clans and FreeFire. 

The acquisition will allow both companies to broaden their reach in the gaming community and promote the co-creation of unique experiences for consumers.

“With the E-sports sector becoming one the fastest growing industries globally, we are confident of growing Revenant 10x in the next 2 years,” said Sajan Raj Kurup, chairman and founder of leading creative agency CreativeLand Asia. “It’s a world where we can pair the right message with the perfect idea, to a highly engaged audience - at the right time. I am personally very excited to be a part of this young company’s journey and hope to co-curate endless opportunities that E-sports offers brands today.”

The aim is to help Revenant Esports become a Rs 200 crore brand in the next 18 months. Revenant Esports is a destination for casual gamers, pro gamers, aspiring gamers and content creators and has shown rapid growth through 2020. Since its inception, the company has set up a commendable e-sport gaming and broadcasting infrastructure. It has made a significant inroad in tier-2 gaming markets. With almost 15,000 active gamers engaged and 20,000 hours (generated in the last two months) of watch time through their content creator network, tournaments and athletes the company aims to grow further in the field of E-sports.

“Being a gamer myself, I have seen the Esports Industry grown exponentially in the past few years,” said Rohit Naresh Jagasia, founder and CEO, Revenant Esports. “We aim to be the heart of the Indian Gaming Industry and grow aggressively in competitive esports, virtual and offline events and content. In planning to collaborate with one of the best content creators and athletes, they have become an indelible part of the Revenant Family.”

With approximately 300 million gamers, India sits among the top five gaming markets globally. Further, there has already been a boost in online gaming in recent months, as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on society. With social distancing measures in place, telecommuting becoming the new norm, and physical sporting events remaining limited, e-sports and mobile gaming has received a boost.

Kurup has an experience of over two decades of building brands in many countries. In 2017,  he set up an investment firm VentureLand Asia with a corpus of over Rs 100 crore to back emerging brands and startups. Unlike mainstream venture capital firms, Ventureland is the culmination of creator and investor mindset coming together. 

“This is not a  pure-play fund where we are going to carpet-bomb,” said Kurup. “The idea is to take some of the garage brands and make them big.”

It is backing creative ideas which have some edge over others and have a tech play in areas such as apparel and healthcare. It had invested in kids clothing brand Masala Baby and Fearless, a sanitiser and disinfectant brand. Kurup said he is looking at ideas that fill the gap that exists in the healthcare sector like affordable medicines and the contactless doctor-patient ecosystem.

The other sectors that Kurup is looking at include environment and agriculture and entertainment. For instance, he has backed SaintFarm, which has an app that has brought together 650 farmers, who grow fruits and vegetables in a completely certified organic ecosystem and then sell the products to the customers. “The idea is to scale them up,” said Kurup.

The parent company CreativeLand Asia is also shifting from being a communications firm to a creative technology company. It has also set up a tech outfit in Austin, Texas in the U.S.

The Indian startup ecosystem has scaled to become the third-largest start hub in the world followed by the US and China. An increasing number of firms are entering into the unicorn club or a company with over $1 billion valuation, after raising large funding rounds. However, Kurup said his belief is to never take more money than what is required, otherwise, it becomes a liability. He invests in a more traditional way and has a frugal approach. “Unless I know I'm going to get it right, I'm not going to get into it (investment).”