Startup Circle: How Gamerji is bridging gap between amateur to professional level gamers

An increasing number of young video gamers view competitive gaming as a career opportunity and need platforms that can provide them with competitive exposure to help in their esports journey and hone their skills. Gamerji bridges this gap between amateur to professional level gamers through their tournaments. The platform has been conceptualised in a way where gamers can compete, share content & win prizes.

Gamerji enhances the gamer experience with its unique features such as gaming profile, content sharing, group chats, communication and cross-game leaderboard that help gamers maintain their gaming stats.

Headquartered in Ahmedabad, the company has consolidated procedures such as registrations, player management and payments, making it a one-stop platform for e-sports tournaments.

Soham Thacker is the CEO & Founder of Gamerji. Soham started Gamerji in 2019, based on his previous experience of building Fantasiji ( a Fantasy sports platform) and F20 Cohort Company ( a global sports innovation hub for early stage investment in sports and esports). He has 10+ years of experience as a founder of various enterprises with a keen business sense and in-depth knowledge of the gaming sector. He is passionate about sports and starts his day playing cricket in the early hours of the morning.

Speaking to CIOL, Soham Thacker, Founder CEO, Gamerji, has shared his views on how Gamerji is bridging this gap between amateur to professional level gamers through their tournaments.

Read here to know more!

Tell us about Gamerji and your offerings. Tell us about the team.

Gamerji is an online esports tournament platform for grassroot gamers to compete, share content, host matches and win exciting prizes by participating in more than 700 tournaments hosted for most of the popular games. Started in Oct 2019, Gamerji currently has 67 team members including tech & tournament management.

What are the drivers/market trends that are shaping the Online Gaming industry in 2023?

Online gaming industry is largely driven by mobile games and because of the accessibility of high graphic phones and affordable data prices, the industry has seen an exponential growth over the last few years. The awareness and penetration of online games is growing among the younger audience who aspire to become esports players.

How is Gamerji tapping these market trends for growth?

Gamerji hosts daily tournaments for the popular games and gives an opportunity to aspiring gamers to showcase their skills and earn rewards for their performances. Hence, giving them a path to grow their gaming skills.

What is the mission and vision behind the creation of Gamerji?

There is a huge gap between amateur gamers and the pros. There is no clear path that bridges this gap. Gamerji was created to bridge this gap and give aspiring gamers a chance to showcase their skills in the competitive environment.

How has your revenue grown with the brand evolving during the pandemic?

Gamerji has seen its revenue grow almost 3X during the pandemic and also post the tough times, the company has been growing its MRR steadily.

What has 2022 changed for you? How are things now?

2022 saw a lot of challenges in the gaming industry with a couple of most popular titles being banned in India and also the post pandemic time, reduced the traction. However, things have stabled now with a lot more titles gaining popularity.

What are your growth priorities for 2023? What’s next on the cards?

Gamerji plans to expand its offering to other countries especially in the Middle East and South East Asia markets. Gamerji has also diversified itself into offering B2B services in partnerships with major gaming and telcos.

What is your message to amateur gamers who dream of becoming an esports professional.

With the rise in the gaming industry and its acceptance as a mainstream career, being an esports professional is shaping into a great career. Along with being a pro, the gaming industry provides a lot of parallel career opportunities in the game publishing and content creation space.

Funding details.

Gamerji raised 3M USD in 2022 as a pre series A round led by GVFL & Unicorn India Ventures and has cumulatively raised approximately 5M. The company is looking to raise 10M USD as its Series A towards the later part of 2023.