Games developer Bombay Play scores seed funding

Online game developing company Bombay Play has raised $1.5 million in a bridge funding round, dubbed pre-Series A, from venture capital firm Leo Capital and founder of Livspace Ramakant Sharma.

The Bengaluru headquartered company will deploy the funds to strengthen its design team and expand overseas, a statement said.

“India is on a rocket ship trajectory to becoming one of the top game development hubs of the world. We are building a team that has the vision and energy to deliver world-class titles that will compete with the best,” Oliver Jones, CEO of Bombay Play, said.

Founded in 2017 by Jones and Abhas Saroha, Bombay Play makes card games. Its games are available on Google Playstore, and App store. People can also play on social networking platform Facebook.

Jones previously co-founded mobile games company Moonfrog Labs and directed games at game developers Glu mobile and Zynga, while Saroha led engineering at Zynga, Moonfrog Labs, and online travel company MakeMyTrip.

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The company claims that it has garnered 10 million downloads in its first year for its signature game Card Party. Last December, Facebook launched two exclusive games by the Pokémon Company, one of which was developed by Bombay Play. 

Some of the games developed by Bombay Play include Pokemon Tower Battle, Card Party, and 29 Card Game. The company is preparing to launch a Battle Royale Game 'lockdown brawl' later this month, the statement added. 

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“India has emerged as one of the top gaming hubs of the world within a matter of years. In a young country with half of the population below the age of 25, a company like Bombay Play has the potential to bring in fresh and exciting gaming content,” Dinesh Singh, Leo Capital said.

Founded in 2017 by serial entrepreneur and angel investor Rajul Garg and Shwetank Verma, Leo Capital is a venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology investments. It has a portfolio of 19 companies including diabetes management app BeatO, women’s community platform SHEROES, edtech startup Edureka, cross browser testing company Lambdatest, freight management software-as-a-service (SaaS) company GoComet, and video-based consumer shopping app Bulbul, among others.

The gaming segment in India has seen traction in the past few months. In June, gaming and sports media company Nazara Technologies acquired Kae Capital’s stocks worth Rs 14.6 crore ($1.92 million) in Bengaluru-based fantasy sports startup HalaPlay Technologies to become the majority stakeholder. 

Nirdesa Networks, which owns and operates online poker platform Pocket52, recently raised $1.75 million in a Series A funding round from game development company Gameskraft.

Gurugram-based Indipepper Media, which owns skill-based gaming platform Zupee, bagged $8 million in a Series A round led by venture capital firm Matrix Partners India, in April.