MadRat Games grabs $1M funding from co-founders of Flipkart and GlobalLogic

Bangalore-based offline gaming products startup MadRat Games Pvt Ltd has secured $1 million (around Rs 6.2 crore) in funding from a clutch of investors, including Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (not related), co-founders of home-grown e-commerce giant Flipkart.com. Other investors who participated in the round are Pine Labs, a provider of payments, loyalty and retail automation solutions, besides Rajul Garg, Sanjay Singh, Manoj Agarwala and Tarun Upadhyay -- founders of GlobalLogic.

MadRat, which essentially makes board games, learning puzzles, toys and mobile games, will use the funds for branding, marketing and expansion.

In December 2012, MadRat had raised an undisclosed amount from Blume Ventures.

The company was founded in 2010 by three IITians – brothers Manuj & Rajat Dhariwal and Madhumita Haldar. Prior to founding MadRat, Manuj worked with companies such as Compassites Software Solutions and Itsme S.r.l of Milan. Rajat worked at Amazon.com and was also a teacher in Rishi Valley School in Chittoor (Andhra Pradesh). He holds an MS degree in Computer Science and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Madhumita worked with Rhythm & Hues and like Rajat, was a teacher at Rishi Valley School.

MadRat entered the market with its flagship product Aksharit, a scrabble game in Hindi, but is now offering games in several local languages such as Bengali, Punjabi and Telugu, and also in English.

The firm claims that it has sold over 275,000 units since inception, and launched 70-plus titles last year.

The firm is selling through 2,000 stores. Its products are also available on e-commerce sites like Flipkart and Amazon. MadRat claims that it had a turnover of Rs 3 crore in the last financial year.

"Innovation is at the core of MadRat's approach to disrupt the market and led by a team of very talented individuals they enjoy a strong competitive advantage in the industry," said Sachin Bansal.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)