Mech Mocha raises $5 million from Accel Partners, other investors

New Delhi: Mech Mocha Game Studios Pvt. Ltd, a start-up that makes mobile games, has raised $5 million in a series A round of funding led by Accel Partners and Shunwei Capital, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Existing investor Blume Ventures also participated in the round. The company had earlier raised $1 million in seed-stage funding from e-commerce marketplace Flipkart and Blume Ventures in December 2015.

The Bengaluru-based company will use the funds to develop and launch new mobile games.

Founded by Arpita Kapoor, Mohit Rangaraju and Shilp Gupta—alumni of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Guwahati—Mech Mocha claims that its first game, Chhota Bheem Himalayan Game, frequently ranks at number one on Google Play store, having been played by more than 4 million users in India.

On the back of rising smartphone and Internet penetration along with rising income levels, the gaming industry in India is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.61% as per a report entitled Emerging Trends in India Gaming Industry, jointly prepared by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and market research firm TechSci Research, Mint reported in February. The report said the gaming industry in India is expected to touch $801 million by 2022 from $543.08 million in 2016.

The start-up says it uses market data analysis and in-house technology to “culturalise narratives and customise gameplay for Indian audiences. It continues to invest in an integrated technology platform with capabilities in behavioural analytics, multiplayer and monetization”, as per the statement.

Mech Mocha plans to partner with other global gaming firms to release more games in India, leveraging its investors’ network. “Globally, Accel has a wealth of experience in the gaming space with investments in (other gaming start-ups) Supercell and Rovio. With Shunwei, we aim to learn from the massive Chinese gaming market and introduce Chinese mobile games to the Indian audience,” Kapoor said in the statement.

“The Indian mobile gaming sector is growing at a fast pace and holds great opportunity...We hope to share our experience in China and use it to create new opportunities for Mech Mocha in India,” said Tuck Lye Koh, founding partner and chief executive of Shunwei Capital in the statement.

“From single to multi-player and massive multi-player encounters, the amount of time spent by gamers in India is expected to increase with investments across the gaming ecosystem. Large amount of data and behaviour trends gets generated every day and this has very large advertising and lead generation potential.” said Sreedhar Prasad, partner Internet business and start-ups, KPMG.

Other gaming start-ups that have been funded include Moonfrog Labs, which raised $15 million from US-based venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global in March 2015 and Octro Inc., which raised $15 million from Sequoia Capital in June 2014.