Casual gaming studio startup HighXP raised $2.2 million in seed led by 3one4 Capital where Prime Venture Partners and Gemba Capital with angel investors, including Rahul Bhardwaj, COO and cofounder of Junglee Games, Anuj Tandon, CEO of Gaming JetSynthesys, and Giri Patil, VP Engineering at Property Finder also participated.
Headquartered in Bengaluru and founded by Shankara Seethappa and Raghu Sankar, HighXP offers casual games to a global audience on social media platforms. The startup aims to create captivating games that resonate with players worldwide.
The freshly raised funds will be utilized to expand the team across various functions and bring in new talent. Moreover, the investment will play a pivotal role in accelerating the growth of HighXP’s debut product, Doodle Me, a social drawing and guessing game targeting players aged five and above.
Highlighting the increasing global audience for casual games, HighXP referred to a report from SuperData stating that over 1.2 billion gamers engage in casual games annually, with approximately 58.86% of them playing on mobile devices.
Industry studies mentioned by HighXP predict that global game downloads will reach 181 billion by 2026. In India, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) expects the Indian mobile gaming industry’s revenue to reach $5 billion by 2025.
However, the Indian government is planning to regulate the online gaming industry to protect users. The All India Gaming Federation (AIGF) has drafted a model charter for self-regulatory bodies (SRBs) in the online gaming sector and is seeking feedback from industry players.
In April 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) notified online gaming rules and mandated the formation of SRBs to evaluate whether to permit such games.
A recent study by cybersecurity firm Surfshark revealed that popular games like 8 Ball Pool, Gardenscapes, and Subway Surfers have a higher-than-average data hunger index.
Despite these developments, several Indian online gaming platforms have experienced significant growth. For instance, MPL, an online gaming unicorn, recently entered the fast-growing African gaming market by launching its app in Nigeria. Additionally, gaming platform Rooter raised $16 million to enhance its technological capabilities, improve its product offerings, and enhance the user experience on the platform.
