India's burgeoning video games ecosystem is set to receive some much needed support, in the form of new VC firm Lumikai.
Lumikai will make up to 20 early-stage investments, valued at between $200,000 and $2 million each. The fund will focus on Indian companies in the video games and interactive content sectors.
Lumikai was co-founded by Justin Shriram Keeling, a games industry veteran with experience at Fox Interactive Media and Disney UTV Ignition, and Salone Sehgal, whose track record encompasses London Venture Partners and M&A for Barclays and Morgan Stanley.
The fund is backed by "iconic gaming and technology companies" from Japan, South Korea, Finland and the US, and it will bring "long-term capital into India's interactive entertainment market for the first time."
"A billion young, entertainment hungry users now have access to the world's cheapest data and frictionless national mobile payments," said Justin Shriram Keeling, Lumikai general partner, in a statement. "We also have arguably the deepest bench of raw creative and technical talent in the world."
Sehgal added that "games creators have been under-financed" in India, but added that the experience and contacts within Lumikai's founding team will allow it to highlight and develop the best opportunities in the region.
Lumikai has been sourcing those opportunities in stealth mode for some time already. It plans to announce its first wave of investments in Q3 of this year.
View the complete article here: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-08-17-lumikai-is-the-first-vc-fund-to-focus-on-indias-growing-games-industry