LightFury Games bags $8.5-million seed funding from Blume Ventures, Mixi, others
Summary
Mixi also launched a $50 million corporate venture capital fund dedicated to the Indian market in August 2023.Also Read: Indian gaming studios see big action; take bolder, ambitious betsLumikai, a gaming and interactive media-focused venture fund, launched its second fund in June 2023 with an aim to raise $50 million to back early-stage gaming and interactive media startups in the country. "The size of the gaming market in India is on the rise and it is an excellent time for us to bring our expertise into the industry. Creating successful AAA titles in the Indian market and establishing a Tencent-like presence originating from India, is what we are excited to bring to the fore" Shroff said in a statement.Karthik Reddy, co-founder and managing partner at Blume Ventures said,"Weve known Karan and his passion towards work since his Unacademy days, we discovered a drive in him for translating this to a AAA gaming studio, thought through from an Indian lens""The ability to piece together the talent and bring in believers from the gaming and consumer universe make it one of our most exciting investments weve made in this space" he said.Blume Ventures has previously backed gaming firms such as casual games developer Hashcube, multiplayer social gaming platform Mech Mocha (acquired by Flipkart in 2020), and mobile games studio Rolocule (acquired by Dream Sports in August 2021).Shroff quit Unacademy in September 2022 after a three-year stint, during which he was also elevated as the edtech firms first partner, equivalent to a co-founder position. He has played a key role in building and shipping many billion dollar gaming titles including multiple titles under the Assassins Creed franchise and Batman: Arkham franchise and the Suicide Squad-Kill the Justice League title.Balachandran, who was previously senior vice president at Unacademy and HR director at Tencent Games, has a track record of scaling organizations and leading cultural initiatives, the company said. She also helped Chinese social media and gaming giant Tencent with its expansion in India.LightFury Games has also roped in former Improbable and Electronic Arts executive Chong-U Lim as its chief technology officer (CTO) and long-time Improbable executive Daniel Hall as the companys senior director of engineering.