Indian social media startup ShareChat, backed by Twitter, Tiger Global and Temasek, is shutting down its fantasy sports platform Jeet11 and has laid off some employees.
People familiar with the matter told TechCrunch that the startup sent an email to its affected employees last month. The platform was operational at the time of writing.
ShareChat confirmed to TechCrunch that it is ceasing the operations of Jeet11 and has laid off less than 5% of its employees due to the decision. The startup has a total workforce of around 2,300 employees, suggesting that the move impacted over 100 people.
“As a standard business practice, we periodically evaluate our strategies. We can confirm that we are ceasing operations of Jeet11 and have reorganized some of our functions, which meant movement of this talent within teams and a few employee exits. This process has impacted less than 5% of our employees,” a ShareChat spokesperson said in a prepared statement.
“We continue to focus on robust growth and hiring across various functions and roles as per our plans. To succeed as India’s fastest-growing social media company, we assess our strategy regularly and make necessary changes to achieve our vision.”
Quietly launched in 2020, Jeet11 was ShareChat’s attempt to take on the likes of Dream Sports’ Dream11 and Mobile Premier League.
Despite ShareChat claiming to have made inroads in smaller Indian cities, Jeet11 never gained any meaningful traction among its users.
Fantasy sports as a business has enticed investors in India in the recent past. Google also recently launched a pilot to allow fantasy sports and rummy apps on the Play Store in the country. Nonetheless, several Indian states continue to maintain ban betting apps. Industry experts believe that most of these gambling apps are heavily reliant on cricket matches and struggle to maintain customers after the end of any key tourney.