Gaming startups LightFury Games and Circle of Games along with bamboo products maker Amwoodo and fintech startup Payinstacard secured early-stage funding, the companies said on Wednesday.
LightFury Games has raised $8.5 million (Rs 71 crore) in a seed funding round led by Blume Ventures. The round also saw participation from Mixi, Gemba Capital along with angel investors like Kunal Shah (Cred) and Gaurav Munjal (Unacademy).
The company plans to utilise funds for building AAA titles and hiring talent for their studios in India and the UK.
Founded by Karan Shroff, Anurag Banerjee and Tina Balachandran in January 2024, LightFury Games is a startup that aims to build AAA titles with an initial focus on mobile gaming and gradually expand into other gaming platforms including consoles.
In gaming, AAA titles are known for their level of polish and quality that require significant financial and technical resources. Titles like "Grand Theft Auto V," "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt," and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” are some examples of AAA titles.
Amwoodo has raised $1 million (Rs 8.3 crore) in a seed funding round from Nithin Kamath’s Rainmatter.
Founded by Avijit Rajak, Agni Mitra and Sourav Dey, Amwoodo is a bamboo-focussed sustainable products maker whose product range includes personal care items, kits for hospitality sector, bamboo polymer composites, bamboo veneers and engineered bamboo.
Rainmatter has been actively investing in the early-stage ecosystem as it has invested over Rs 450 crore in nearly 80 startups across the fintech, health, climate, content and education sectors.
It typically invests nearly Rs 5-10 crore across early-stage companies.
Rainmatter has backed startups such as smallcase, Card91, Digio, Ditto, GoldenPi in fintech; Emoha, Game Theory, DitchTheGuilt, Noto Ice Creams in healthcare, and InfinityBox and Agnikul in climate.
Circle of Games
Web3 gaming platform Circle of Games has raised $1 million (Rs 8.3 crore) in a funding round from Nazara Technologies and The Hashgraph Association.
The startup intends to use this funding for its go-to-market strategy, improve platform capabilities and widen its international presence in the US, European Union (EU), Middle East, Africa and Asia in 2024.
It also plans to expand its gaming portfolio from the current six games to over ten games by the fourth quarter of 2024.
Founded by Rabilal Thapa, Rajeeb VC and Rohit Tiwari, Circle of Games develops casual and skilled-based games on blockchain, with play-to-earn reward mechanics.
Established in 2022, the gaming app claims to have garnered over 250,000 registered Android users. The platform is scheduled to launch its app on iOS devices by the second quarter of 2024.
Payinstacard
Payinstacard has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round from angel investors PC Doraswamy (Brandix India) and Sandhya Rani Maddipati.
The startup plans to deploy the funding for customer acquisition, as it aims to reach at least 1 million users in the next 18 months.
Founded by Sai Krishna Musunuru and Sri Nagesh Kotipalli in 2022, Payinstacard is an application that simplifies the bill payments process in India.
“Having individuals like PC Doraswamy and Sandhya Rani Maddipati on our board will improve our capability to innovate and extend our market reach,” said Sri Nagesh Kotipalli, co-founder, Payinstacard.