Karan Shroff, former CMO at Unacademy, has established LightFury Games, a gaming startup that secured 8.5 million USD in seed funding from Blume Ventures, Mixi, and Gemba Capital. Cred founder Kunal Shah and Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal were among the other investors who took part in the funding round.

The startup plans to leverage the fresh capital to develop AAA games in India and will initially focus on mobile games before expanding to other platforms, including consoles.

AAA games feature high budgets and high-quality graphics that are developed and published by major game companies or studios. They feature advanced gameplay mechanics, extensive content, and significant marketing campaigns, and are usually released on multiple platforms such as PC, consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox, and sometimes mobile devices.

Examples of AAA games include popular franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, The Witcher, Assassin's Creed, and Call of Duty.

LightFury, co-founded by Shroff, Anurag Banerjee, who is also chief product and technology officer, and Tina Balachandran, former senior vice president at Unacademy, aims to create gaming studios in India and the UK while recruiting top talent.

Creating successful AAA games in the Indian market and establishing Tencent's presence in India is something we are excited to bring to the forefront," Shroff said in a statement. "This requires getting the best possible experience and using the latest technological innovations to ensure the quality of the game is at its highest."

While India has seen the rise of gaming companies like Dream11, Mobile Premier League (MPL), and Games 24x7, it is yet to produce a homegrown AAA game. However, efforts are being made in this direction, such as the soft launch of Underworld Gang Wars by Mayhem Studios, the mobile game development arm of MPL, and the soft launch of Indus Battle Royale by Pune-based gaming studio SuperGaming.

The ability to bring together talent and attract believers from the gaming world and consumers makes it one of the most exciting investments we have made in this space,” said Karthik Reddy, co-founder and managing partner of Blume Ventures.

Also Read: GST officials serve tax notices worth 1 lakh crore to online gaming companies