Decoding Lumikai's Investment Playbook For India's $30Bn Gaming & Interactive Media Industry

As part of its Moneyball series, Inc42 sat down with Salone Sehgal, Founder and Managing Partner of Lumikai, to decode the fund's investment thesis for India's gaming and interactive media space. She places India's digital media and entertainment market at a minimum of $25Bn, with games, anime, VFX and similar segments accounting for $12Bn, growing at a 20% CAGR and expected to reach $30Bn in the next five to seven years.

Salone traces how the ecosystem has grown through a wave of entrepreneurial talent from companies like Zynga, EA and Ubisoft, more than 30 global co-investors and aggressive India strategies from players such as Krafton. She explains why gaming and media businesses can monetise users early, helped by UPI-enabled microtransactions and eCPMs that have risen from 30 to 35 cents to more than $1, and how Lumikai backs category leaders across interactive media, digital platforms and games.

She also highlights systems of play, where game mechanics disrupt sectors like edtech, as with portfolio company Supernova's AI tutor teaching spoken English to children. Her advice to founders is to think distribution-first and integrate AI and GenAI across their development pipelines.

Read the article here.