One of the most prominent online poker platforms PokerBaazi.com run by Baazi games is in talks with investors to raise $35-40 million for increasing the scale of operations and investing in technology. The co-founder of the company Varun Ganjoo has confirmed that the contracts are expected to sign in the next few months.

Started in October 2-14 by a group of poker players, PokerBaazi.com has become the country’s biggest game platform with 2.5 million active users. As per the co-founder, the company has seen a 64% jump in revenue in the financial year 2022 (FY) to INR 249 crore, from INR 152 crore in FY21.

Also Read: Bollywood star Shahid Kapoor roped in as the new brand ambassador of PokerBaazi

“Collectively, we have raised somewhere around $20 million till now, and now our aim is to raise around $35-40 million. Primarily, it’s for two aspects–one is the technology bit, which we feel is at the core of our business and for marketing,” said Ganjoo, who is also the marketing director.

“We call ourselves a technology business, which is having expertise in gaming and not otherwise, because of the importance of technology. So, we would be spending on technology. We will be expanding the team,” he added.

The company has a total of 300 employees of which around 60% are on the technical team. “We will have a pipeline of another 200 people over the next few months. Our foundations are so solid and it would not take much time to get those tags. However, we are a unit metrics-driven brand. We believe in making long-term sustainable businesses.

So, I think that is where we are confident that our growth journey is here to stay and we will continue growing at the pace that we are,” said Ganjoo.

The company has also signed up prominent actor Shahid Kapoor as its brand ambassador for a time period of two years, with an aim to popularize the sport and create a strong ecosystem for poker in India. Co-founder Ganjoo said the company wishes to take poker to the sporting category level just like cricket or football.