New Bengaluru-based casual gaming start-up Giga Fun Studios has raised $2.4 million in a seed round led by Lumikai —a gaming and interactive-media-focused venture capital (VC) Fund and Fireside Ventures. The funding round also saw participation from All In Capital, Kettleborough VC and Riverwalk Holdings.
The company plans to utilise the funds to create a benchmark in casual games built to high quality for Indian and global audiences.
The start-up is founded by Krishnendu Mukherjee- former assistant vice president (AVP) and Head of Game Design at Mobile Premiere League (MPL), Rahul Daga- former director of products Zynga, and Rahul Shekhar- former engineering lead at m56 Studios.
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It is said that the founders have extensive experience building leading casual games for India. They collectively have shipped and operated more than ten games with experience managing gaming profits and losses of over $100 million.
The company aims to focus on designing games with geo accessibility across the full game stack, including simple but compelling game loops, customised user interface and user experience (UI/UX) design for domestic gamers, accessible pricing, and distribution through third-party app stores.
“We have been brainstorming the idea of creating a Gaming studio that caters to the Indian audience and the core problem we mutually identified was that while current dominant casual are very high in quality, they haven't been able to fully unlock an Indian player base due to a lack of cultural resonance. Our belief is that with the right themes and geo-specific mechanics, we will be able to crack adoption and monetization for casual games in India,” said Krishnendu Mukherjee, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Giga Fun Studios in a media statement.
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“We believe that culture-themed casual games have the potential to unlock disruption in the gaming space in India,” Justin Shriram Keeling, founding general partner of Lumikai added.
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