HighXP, an India-based casual gaming studio building social games, has raised $2.2 million in seed funding.
The funding was led by 3one4 Capital with participation from Prime Venture Partners and Gemba Capital, HighXP said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the statement, several noted angel investors also participated in HighXP including Rahul Bhardwaj (Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Junglee Games, Owl Capital), Anuj Tandon (Gaming Investor and Chief Executive Officer of Jetsynthesys) and Giri Patil (Vice President of Propertyfinder).
HighXP said the investment will play a crucial role in accelerating the growth of the firm’s debut game, Doodle Me, available for free on the Google Play store and Apple Store and assist the studio in launching more games.
The startup said it will use the fresh capital to invest in new talent and expand its team across all functions.
Founded by Shankara Seethappa and Raghu Sankar, HighXP is a casual gaming studio that builds fun and engaging social-casual games for a global audience.
The founders have played instrumental roles in creating and nurturing more than 20 games at renowned organizations such as Zynga, Big Viking Games, and Microsoft.
Leveraging their expertise, HighXP aims to develop captivating social-casual games that resonate with a global audience.
The startup’s inaugural game, Doodle Me, is a social drawing and guessing game designed for players aged 5 and above.
It is noted that the casual mobile gaming industry is experiencing rapid growth, with an increasing number of players worldwide.
Cited an industry report by SuperData, HighXP said there are over 1.2 billion gamers who engage in casual games annually, with approximately 58.86 percent of them playing games on mobile devices.
In line with this trend, Sensor Tower projects that player spending on mobile games will reach an astounding $117 billion by 2026.
Moreover, the global number of game downloads is expected to reach 181 billion by 2026.
Closer to home, the Indian mobile gaming industry is also flourishing with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) estimates that the revenue of the Indian mobile gaming industry is expected to reach $5 billion by 2025.
Prime Venture Partners is an early-stage venture capital fund managed by partners with deep experience both as entrepreneurs and operators.
Led by Amit Somani, Sanjay Swamy and Shripati Acharya, the fund is focused on building disruptive product companies out of India, and addresses a much needed gap in the Indian startup ecosystem – by bringing a combination of first-hand entrepreneurial experience, operating expertise and meaningful capital.
The firm has a rich portfolio of category creating companies including Quizizz, MyGate, PlanetSpark, Dozee, NiYO, Sunstone Eduversity, KredX, WheelsEye and more.
Gemba Capital is a sector agnostic micro-venture capital fund investing in tech startups in seed and pre-seed rounds.
Led by Adith Podhar, the fund aims to back mission-driven high-quality founders that possess an unwavering ambition to build large world class companies.
Some of the startups Gemba has backed are Wint Wealth, Plum Insurance, Grip invest, Strata, Showroom, Zuper, Unnati, Threado, Smartstaff and more.