Lumikai declined to disclose pricing for BuyStars. (representation)
Chennai:
Indian online gaming platform BuyStars today announced it has raised $5 million in a pre-Series A round led by venture capital (VC) fund Lumikai as it looks to hire more staff and launch new games.
Existing investors Leo Capital and Chiratae, tech-focused VC funds, also participated in the round, coming off the back of a $4 million seed round in December 2021.
BuyStars Lumikai, which is on board in the current round, declined to disclose pricing. Lumikai invests in game studios and streaming platforms.
Buystars CEO Aman Satija said the platform, which offers fantasy games and trump cards, could be profitable in the next year and a half, and in the long term it could increase its workforce from the current 35 to about 60 employees.
The company aims to increase its monthly gross merchandise value – the value of goods sold through the platform – by 10 times over the next 12 months with new game launches, currently worth more than $1 million, Satiya told Reuters.
Online gaming revenue in India is expected to reach $1.9 billion by 2024, up from $1.2 billion in 2021. According to government agency Invest India, India reports the highest number of game app downloads.
However, gaming apps in India face obstacles as several state governments, including Tamil Nadu, crack down on online contests that offer cash prizes, arguing that they can be addictive and financially damaging.
A senior Lumikai official said such measures were “par for the course” in a country of more than 1 billion people.
“There are some states that have taken different approaches and that’s to be expected in a market as diverse as India,” Lumikai Founding General Partner Salon Sehgal said.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published on a syndicated channel.)
