Gaming startup LightFury Games has raised $8.5 million in its Seed round led by Blume Ventures.
The round also saw participation from Japanese mobile entertainment firm Mixi and micro venture capital firm Gemba Capital, angel investors such as Kunal Shah, Gaurav Munjal.
The proceeds will be used to build AAA titles with an initial focus on mobile games and later expand to other platforms, including consoles. AAA games are titles that typically have big budgets for both development and marketing purposes.
Floated by former Unacademy and Tencent Games executive Karan Shroff, Tina Balachandran and gaming industry veteran Anurag Banerjee, the startup has also roped in former Improbable and Electronic Arts executive Chong-U Lim as its chief technology officer (CTO) and long-time Improbable executive Daniel Hall as the company’s senior director of engineering.
Chief executive Shroff left Unacademy in September 2022 after a three-year stint at the edtech unicorn. Previously, he also served as the head of brand marketing for Xiaomi India for more than four years.
Apart from investing in game development, the funds raised will be used to establish game studios in India and in the UK and hire top talent for these studios.