Homegrown multi-games platform Gamezop with over 34 million monthly active users has raised ₹32 crore ($ 4.3 million) in Series A funding from US-based Bitkraft Ventures, Velo Partners, and FJ Labs.
This is the first major investment for the company since the 2016 seed round when they raised ₹2.3 crore from Kwan, a talent management firm.
Owned by Gurugram-based Advergame Technologies Private Limited, Gamezop was founded by Yashash Agarwal and Gaurav Agarwal in 2015. It’s known for its byte sized HTML5-based mobile games that can be played directly on any mobile browser. The platform has also partnered with various social media, e-commerce, video streaming and payment platforms such as Myntra, Grofers, ShareChat, MX Player and PhonePe, offering games for the dedicated gaming section on these platforms.
In April, Gamezop tied up with Snapdeal offering games such as Savage Revenge, Tower Twist, Battle Fish and Rafting Adventure on the e-commerce store. Overall, the platform has over 270 games.
“Gamezop powers the gaming section on various other platforms which want to drive up user engagement using games. Pushing on a new gaming application can be expensive. These partner tie-ups account for roughly 75% of Gamezop’s business,” said Gaurav Agarwal.
Agarwal also clarified that the platform is only available on browser and through partner platforms and there is no app presence on Play Store or App Store. Like most popular platforms, Gamezop’s name has been duplicated and offered as gaming apps on Play Store.
“We have been looking to enter the Indian gaming market for a while and with Gamezop, the factors that excite us the most came together nicely – proven model ready to scale, extreme capital efficiency, solid product moat, and an unfair advantage in user acquisition. That Gamezop could scale to over 34 Mn users in a highly competitive space, while being profitable and with minimal external capital highlights the team’s capabilities to be a major internet company,” Malte Barth, Founding General Partner, Bitkraft said in a statement.
Founded in 2017, Bitkraft is an early and mid-stage investor which discovers, supports, and helps esports startups scale.
After the covid-19 outbreak and shift to remote working and learning, online gaming platforms in India have seen a huge growth opening up the door for new investments.
In June, another gaming startup Bombay Play had raised $1.5 million in pre-series A round from Leo Capital, an angel investor and co-founder of Livspace Ramakant Sharma. Founded by Oliver Jones and Abhas Saroha, Bombay Play creates multi-player games.
