Excl: Mobile games developer Mech Mocha raises funding from CIIE, others

Ahmedabad-based Mech Mocha Game Studios Pvt Ltd, a mobile games development startup, has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from IIM-A's tech incubator CIIE (Centre for Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship), and a group of angel investors including Devendra Parulekar, partner at Ernst & Young; Sanjay Mehta, member of both Indian Angel Network and Mumbai Angels; Ravi Trivedi, founder of Srijan Capital; and another unnamed individual.

The company will use the capital to scale up its team, develop and launch products and also move to overseas markets, according to Arpita Kapoor, co-founder, Mech Mocha.

Mech Mocha was founded last year by Arpita (Chief Mocha) and Mohit Rangaraju (Chief Mech) – both alumni of Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (Gwalior). The duo had earlier founded an online food delivery service for students while in college. Prior to setting up Mech Mocha, they worked at Blue Giant Interactive and 9 DOT 9 Media.

An independent game development studio, Mech Mocha creates fun, action/arcade smartphone-based games. It is currently working on an iOS title called Puppet Punch, a casual action endless fighting game set inside a puppet theatre where the lead character PABLO has to fight out puppets using power punches, sci-fi headgears and awesome blasts.

"We work on casual games targeted at international audience that are approachable and simple. We are already in search for partnership with Indian and international publishers," Arpita mentioned.

With four full-time employees and three-four collaborators on board, the firm is also planning to foray into overseas markets like Europe.

Mech Mocha was part of iAccelerator 2013 batch, and had raised funding as part of the programme. Earlier, it was incubated and supported by Technology Innovation and Incubation Center (TIIC) of  IIITM Gwalior.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)