Ashneer Grover's Third Unicorn forays into cricket fantasy sports, raises seed funding

Former CEO of BharatPe Ashneer Grover has raised seed funding for his latest venture Third Unicorn Pvt Ltd, which he has floated along with his wife Madhuri Jain. The new venture will be focusing on fantasy sports with a cricket-centric app called CrickPe.  

The venture, which has been launched just ahead of the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting next month, will be focusing on the booming real-money gaming industry and will be directly competing with the likes of Tiger Global-backed Dream11 and others.  

Besides his wife, Grover has roped in Dubai-based blockchain services firm BlockTech Brew’s executive Aseem Ghavri as the co-founder of the new gaming app. 

The app CrickPe comes almost after eight months when Grover first announced the launch of Third Unicorn in July 2022 after registering it with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

The CrickPe website stated that the platform is a fantasy sports app that will allow players to participate in public, private, or "mega contests" to earn cash prizes.  

The participants can create small private groups to play the game or can participate in bigger contests with real cricketers. The platform will also offer free contests for people to practice and hone their skills.   

Besides this, CrickPe is also slated to offer a feature that allows users to pay rewards to show love to their favourite cricketer. 

Last month in a LinkedIn post, Grover said: "We at Third Unicorn have quietly and peacefully built a business that is shaking the market. Bootstrapped. Without limelight. And we are doing things differently. Very differently." 

Grover also shared a slideshow on his new venture and said that he has started his new venture with just 50 members. He said that he has promised to give Mercedes to employees who complete five years in Third Unicorn. "Gratuity to bezzati liye hoti hai," he said. 

 Also read: 'Insane': Ashneer Grover slams Delhi's IGI after waiting for 30 minutes

Also read: BharatPe tussle intensifies as Ashneer Grover writes to NPCI accusing Bhavik Koladiya of data theft: Report

Also read: BharatPe paid Rs 1.69 crore salary to Ashneer Grover, Rs 2.1 crore to Suhail Sameer in FY22, reveal filings