Technology giant Microsoft is in talks with multi-gaming platform Zupee and has proposed to lead an investment round of over $100 million, as reported by Techcrunch.

Zupee is one of the largest companies in India in the skill-based gaming industry which claims to allow people to earn while gaming with its play-to-earn gaming model. It allows players to enjoy a variety of tabletop games like Ludo, Carrom, Snakes & Ladder, playing cards and others.

A certain section at Microsoft has advised against the deal which can become a reason for it to not move forward at all as they believe that investing in skill-based games might not be good for Microsoft’s image.

Zupee and Microsoft declined to comment on the proposed deal. Zupee is estimated to be valued at $600 million and has amassed over 70 million downloads of their platform.

As part of this deal, Microsoft will likely ask Zupee to use Azure, a cloud computing service offered by it in line with similar deals they have struck with hospitality aggregator Oyo.

Earlier this year in January, Zupee had partnered with Jio Platforms to form a “first of a kind strategic partnership” to “build an ecosystem that will facilitate faster and more efficient development and distribution of products and services”. Zupee, which is headquartered in New Delhi, has already raised $120 million in funding till date which includes more than $100 million raised in series B round that ended on January this year.

The skill-based gaming space has seen increased interest from large corporations and venture capital firms. Dream11, Winzo and the likes have gone through funding rounds in the last year or so. Similarly, MechMocha, which was bought by Flipkart (owned by Walmart) in 2020, went through with a Series B round of $10 million in June this year.