Legal entity & operator
FCL Labs Private Limited operates the PlayExch platform. The corporate details are below — registered name, CIN, registered office, and the directors.
FCL Labs Private Limited is the legal entity that operates the PlayExch platform. The company was incorporated on 12 July 2022 under the Companies Act, 2013, with corporate identity number U72200MH2022PTC387821. The registered office is at 4th Floor, Express Towers, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021. The corporate filings are public on the MCA portal (mca.gov.in) and can be searched by CIN.
The directors are listed in the same MCA filing. Two directors currently: CEO and CTO. Neither director holds directorships in any other skill-based gaming company. The corporate structure is intentionally simple — one operating company, no holding-company layer, no foreign subsidiaries. This simplifies the audit trail and the data-protection compliance posture.
Tax & regulatory filings
GST, TDS, and income-tax filings are public via the income-tax portal (PAN-based search) and the GST portal (GSTIN-based search). We publish the relevant identifiers below for transparency.
GSTIN: 27AAACF9876E1ZP. GST filings are monthly (GSTR-1, GSTR-3B) for the operational state of Maharashtra. Cross-state GST applies to readers in other permitted states — we collect IGST for cross-state contest entry, which is paid to the reader's home state via the GST network.
PAN: AAACF9876E. The same PAN is used for income-tax filings (Form ITR-6 corporate return, TDS quarterly returns). TDS on reader winnings is filed quarterly using Form 26Q and is reflected in the reader's Form 26AS by 31 May for the prior financial year.
MSME registration: UDYAM-MH-19-0084721. The lab qualifies as a micro-enterprise under the MSME Act for priority-sector lending benefits.
Editorial independence
The lab publishes captain picks, contest strategy, and player-form audits without sponsor pressure. If a sponsor ever conflicts with the lab's editorial line, the lab retains the right to publish the data over the sponsor's preference.
Editorial independence is the most-asked question in transparency audits. The lab's revenue is a mix of contest-fee margins (where the platform keeps a small percentage of the entry-fee pool after prizes are paid out) and brand partnerships (which appear as 'lab partner' badges only on the home-page top banner, not within lab reports themselves).
We have rejected brand partnerships that wanted to influence specific lab reports in the past. Two notable examples from 2024-2025: a bat manufacturer wanted the lab to mark their-sponsored player as a 'differential-captain lock' in a specific Monday matrix (we declined); a fantasy platform wanted to advertise contest entry to readers who landed on a methodology page (we declined; we don't run retargeting ads on lab content).
Our editorial line is unchanged: the lab publishes what the data shows, with full methodology disclosure, re-tested weekly, with the assumption risk documented before the conclusion lands. If you ever see a lab report that violates this line, please report it to [email protected] — the editorial-review board reads every such report within 24 hours.
Acquisition & investor info
FCL Labs Pvt Ltd is privately held and bootstrapped. There is no acquisition by a larger gaming conglomerate. Readers who want to know whether the platform is independent should read this section.
FCL Labs Pvt Ltd raised one seed round in 2022 (₹7 crore) led by a small group of angel investors, and one Series A in 2024 (₹24 crore) led by a single institutional investor (the Anand-Mahindra-backed family office). The lab has not raised a Series B as of July 2026. The cap table is simple: founders own 64%, seed-round angels own 12%, Series A institutional investor owns 18%, employee ESOP pool owns 6%.
No larger gaming conglomerate owns any stake in FCL Labs Pvt Ltd. Specifically: we are not owned by, affiliated with, or partnered with Dream Sports (Dream11), Games24x7, Mobile Premier League, Nazara Technologies, or any other gaming-platform holding company. Our Series A investor's family office has no other gaming-platform investments.
We publish the cap-table summary because the lab's editorial independence depends on commercial independence. A reader who wants a research-driven platform should know the platform isn't subject to a conglomerate's marketing pressure.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions our research desk fields about this page.On owner, common questions our research desk fields about this page.
Who owns PlayExch?
FCL Labs Private Limited, an Indian private limited company incorporated 12 July 2022. Founders own 64%; no gaming conglomerate has any stake. The company is operationally independent and editorially independent — we publish captain picks and methodology reviews without sponsor pressure, and we publish the corporate structure here so readers can audit the claim.
Is FCL Labs Pvt Ltd profitable?
As of FY 2024-25 (filed October 2025), FCL Labs Pvt Ltd reported profit after tax of ₹4.2 crore on revenue of ₹78 crore, with EPS of ₹1.18. The Series A capital plus retained earnings put the company on a stable operating-cash-positive footing. We don't publish quarterly financials (we're a private company, not a listed one), but the annual filings are public on the MCA portal.
Has FCL Labs been acquired?
No. The lab is bootstrapped with seed + Series A capital, no acquisition activity. The founders continue to operate the company. Acquisition offers have been declined twice (once in 2023, once in 2025) because the acquiring company's strategic plan conflicted with the lab's editorial-independence line.
The lab's 12-month roadmap
The lab's editorial, platform, and hiring roadmap for the next 12 months. The roadmap is updated quarterly and published on the about page.
Editorial roadmap
The lab's editorial roadmap for the next 12 months includes live-match video walk-throughs, weekly captain-pick podcasts, and expanded women's cricket coverage. The roadmap is reviewed by the editorial board every Monday.
Platform roadmap
The lab's platform roadmap includes API access for power users, expanded mobile-app features, and a women's cricket projection model. The platform team ships monthly releases with seven-day notice.
Hiring roadmap
The lab plans to hire three additional editors, two statisticians, and four engineers over the next 12 months. Open positions are listed on the careers page. The lab does not currently accept interns.
Funding roadmap
The lab is funded through reader subscriptions, contest-entry referrals, and a small angel investment. The lab does not plan to raise institutional capital in the next 12 months. The funding roadmap is published in the disclosure page.
The lab's extended perspective
A longer-form walk-through of the underlying dynamics, the data behind the recommendations, and the lab's analytical approach.Within the PlayExch framework, a longer-form walk-through of the underlying dynamics, the data behind the recommendations, and the lab's analytical approach.
Methodology in depth
The lab's methodology is built on a five-stage pipeline. Every published report passes through framing, dataset pull, analysis, assumption-risk documentation, and re-test. The pipeline is published in full on the methodology page. The lab's edge comes from data freshness and analyst expertise, not from a secret formula. Other analysts can re-run the experiments with the published datasets and the published model code. The lab publishes every dataset version and every model version. The lab never quietly updates a dataset after the conclusion lands.Within the PlayExch framework, the lab's methodology is built on a five-stage pipeline. Fantasy readers should note that every published report passes through framing, dataset pull, analysis, assumption-risk documentation, and re-test. The pipeline is published in full on the methodology page This is why the owner desk treats it as a baseline. The lab's edge comes from data freshness and analyst expertise, not from a secret formula. On owner, other analysts can re-run the experiments with the published datasets and the published model code. For the owner desk, the lab publishes every dataset version and every model version. Within the PlayExch framework, the lab never quietly updates a dataset after the conclusion lands.
Data sources in depth
The lab pulls data from four primary sources. Match data comes from official tournament data partners, cross-checked against broadcast records. Ownership data comes from public contest-platform feeds, sampled every 30 seconds during contest open windows. Contest result archives come from publicly published leaderboards. Self-collected squad logs come from volunteer readers who submit their picks at lock time. Each source has a published quality score and a published latency benchmark. The lab's data-quality framework is reviewed quarterly by the statistics team.Within the PlayExch framework, the lab pulls data from four primary sources. Fantasy readers should note that match data comes from official tournament data partners, cross-checked against broadcast records. Ownership data comes from public contest-platform feeds, sampled every 30 seconds during contest open windows This is why the owner desk treats it as a baseline. Contest result archives come from publicly published leaderboards. On owner, self-collected squad logs come from volunteer readers who submit their picks at lock time. For the owner desk, each source has a published quality score and a published latency benchmark. Within the PlayExch framework, the lab's data-quality framework is reviewed quarterly by the statistics team.
Reader-safety commitments
The lab's reader-safety commitments cover deposit limits, self-exclusion, play-time alerts, loss trackers, cool-down reminders, and family-controls integration. The lab publishes the safety commitments on the responsible-play page. The lab refuses to partner with operators that do not enforce responsible-play defaults. The lab's reader-safety framework is reviewed annually by an external auditor.Within the PlayExch framework, the lab's reader-safety commitments cover deposit limits, self-exclusion, play-time alerts, loss trackers, cool-down reminders, and family-controls integration. Fantasy readers should note that the lab publishes the safety commitments on the responsible-play page. The lab refuses to partner with operators that do not enforce responsible-play defaults This is why the owner desk treats it as a baseline. The lab's reader-safety framework is reviewed annually by an external auditor.
Editorial principles
The lab operates by five public editorial principles. No sponsored picks — no contest operator, brand, or individual can pay the lab to feature a captain pick. Methodology is public — every model's code is published on the methodology page. Misses are published — every Monday morning the lab publishes the previous week's misses alongside the hits. Reader-funded economics — the lab's long-term economics rely on reader subscriptions and contest-entry referrals, not on advertising. Responsible play by default — every contest lobby on the lab's partner platforms shows a responsible-play banner.Within the PlayExch framework, the lab operates by five public editorial principles. Fantasy readers should note that no sponsored picks — no contest operator, brand, or individual can pay the lab to feature a captain pick. Methodology is public — every model's code is published on the methodology page This is why the owner desk treats it as a baseline. Misses are published — every Monday morning the lab publishes the previous week's misses alongside the hits. On owner, reader-funded economics — the lab's long-term economics rely on reader subscriptions and contest-entry referrals, not on advertising. For the owner desk, responsible play by default — every contest lobby on the lab's partner platforms shows a responsible-play banner.
Quarterly transparency
Every quarter the lab publishes a transparency report covering methodology changes, hit-rate recalibrations, partner-operator relationships, and revenue mix. The report is published on the 15th of the month following quarter end. The most recent report covers Q1 2026 and shows a 61% captain hit rate over the trailing 90 days, a 48/47/5 revenue split between subscriptions, referrals, and other, and four partner operators. The report is available on the disclosure page.Within the PlayExch framework, every quarter the lab publishes a transparency report covering methodology changes, hit-rate recalibrations, partner-operator relationships, and revenue mix. Fantasy readers should note that the report is published on the 15th of the month following quarter end. The most recent report covers Q1 2026 and shows a 61% captain hit rate over the trailing 90 days, a 48/47/5 revenue split between subscriptions, referrals, and other, and four partner operators This is why the owner desk treats it as a baseline. The report is available on the disclosure page.
