The funds will be used to expand the team size, currently at seven, in product and system development and in marketing its games. QuriousBit did not disclose the valuation at which the firm raised the funds.
The firm, founded by Ramakrishna Reddy Y L and Shubham Joshi, will build online puzzle-based casual games, Reddy said in an interaction with ET. Both were senior executives at casual gaming startup Playsimple Games, which was acquired by Swedish gaming giant Modern Times Group for about $360 million in 2021.
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The funds will be used to expand the team size, currently at seven, in product and system development and in marketing its games. QuriousBit did not disclose the valuation at which the firm raised the funds.
It is currently working on its first game, called Jumbo Tile Blast, which is in beta right now. Reddy described it as a puzzle game similar to Tetris, but with other unique elements. “Think of it as a mix of Tetris and Sudoku, with a lot of unique puzzle elements,” Reddy added.
“A fresh and innovative approach, both in game design and distribution, is imperative to achieve category leading success in the highly competitive global casual gaming market, given current market conditions. Ram and Shubham’s deep thinking, category expertise, and design orientation deeply impressed us. We are excited to be on the QuriousBit journey with them,” said Salone Sehgal, founding general partner at Lumikai.
The firm will use a mix of in-app purchasing and in-app advertising to earn revenues. Though the first game will be released worldwide, the initial aim will be to turn profitable in geographies like the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, Reddy said.
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“At Playsimple Games, we helped build seven games with positive EBITDA margins… so we have experience delivering profitability and scale and it will be a top priority in this venture. We hope to hit unit economics profitability in the next 18 to 24 months,” he added.
The first game will be released at the end of October and Reddy says the team is working around six genres of puzzle games for future release.
“At General Catalyst, we are believers of audacious founders from India building for the world. When we met Rama and Shubham, we became fans of their deep expertise, having driven the growth of PlaySimple’s games to over $100 million in revenues, resulting in one of the best exits in the Indian ecosystem to date,” said Anand Chandrasekaran, partner at General Catalyst.
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