Hyper-social gaming platform Bombay Play has raised $7 million, led by Kalaari Capital. Vernacular gaming platform Winzo also participated in the round along with Lumikai Fund, Leo Capital and PlayCo, AdvantEdge VC, and AMEA Ventures. The company plans to invest the new funds in scaling its existing ‘hyper-social’ game offerings, supporting upcoming projects and allocating capital toward product development.

Also read: Winzo launches game developer fund at $20 million corpus

Founded in 2018 by Oliver Jones and Abhas Saroha, both former Zynga employees, Bombay Play is the publisher of Dice Merge Puzzle, Card Party, and Daily Word Puzzle which have over 40 million players worldwide. The Bengaluru-headquartered company currently employs 50 people and plans doubling its headcount by the end of FY22. The company has now raised over $9.5 million in capital, and the latest financing more than quadruples the valuation of its Pre-Series A round in 2020, it said.

Oliver Jones, CEO, Bombay Play said, “Since the inception of Bombay Play, our aim has been to create games that you can play with your friends seamlessly. Our team’s ambition is to disrupt the current casual games market with hypersocial game designs by leveraging our cross platform distribution channels. We are delighted to have found the confidence of investors in our journey to build a gaming innovation factory in India. With the amount raised, we will scale up existing offerings while investing in cutting-edge technologies to elevate the social experience of casual gamers worldwide .”

Also read: Lila Games launches $10 million in Series A funding

Salone Sehgal, General Partner, Lumikai, a gaming and interactive media fund, and also one of Bombay Play’s early investors, said, “At Lumikai, we have witnessed the tremendous evolution of Bombay Play as a studio from seed to scale. Oliver and Abhas, as veteran gaming entrepreneurs,  bring extensive domain expertise, strong user insights, data driven development and a world class team towards building hit games from India.”

“We are elated to continue being a support and mentor to Bombay Play’s continued growth and commitment to introduce shared social experiences,” Sehgal said.

Also read: E-sports platform FanClash to raise $30 million

Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital, said, “We were highly impressed with what Oliver and Abhas have been able to achieve and they are definitely one of the most experienced gaming entrepreneurs in the country today. We are very excited about how they are disrupting the casual gaming industry with their hypersocial model and are delighted to partner with them in this journey.”