Antler Leads Pre-Seed Funding Round for Sahaj Gaming, Amount Undisclosed
- ByStartupStory | January 19, 2024
Sahaj Gaming, a new-age gaming studio, has secured pre-seed funding led by Antler in India. The startup was founded by Deepak Saini, former VP and Head of Product at Games24x7, and Rahul Bantiya, who led revenue growth and retention for RummyCircle, India’s largest online rummy platform.
With the goal of revolutionizing the casual gaming segment, which is the fastest-growing segment of India’s Rs 25,000 crores (FY23) gaming market, Sahaj Gaming aims to develop a suite of games rooted in Indian culture such as Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, Tambola, and Checkers.
Deepak Saini, Founder and CEO of Sahaj Gaming, expressed, “India has a long cultural history of board games. Popular board games like Ludo, Chess, Snakes and Ladders, and Checkers are modern iterations of their ancient counterparts dating back thousands of years. Over time, these games have evolved in shape, form, and gameplay, leading to their current-day avatars. Sahaj Gaming is now reimagining the future of these popular and beloved games by re-designing these into more social, skill-based gameplays with innovative mechanics; starting with Ludo. Using our deep understanding of game design and player psychology, we transform these games into skill-based tournaments, making our games relevant in the modern global gaming scenario.”
Rahul Bantiya, Co-founder and CMO of Sahaj Gaming, commented on the scale of the opportunity, stating, “Gaming is set to become bigger than music, movies, and television shows combined and has started growing rapidly in India over the last decade. We see incredible potential in this space with an Rs 25,000 crores market currently, which is set to triple by 2030. There are over 50 crore gamers in India, and our objective is to build a gaming powerhouse that can entertain millions of gamers not only in India but across the globe.”
Rajiv Srivatsa, Partner at Antler in India, shared his thoughts on the investment, saying, “Despite macro uncertainties given recent changes in taxation for the gaming industry, we continue to be bullish on the gaming opportunity in India. With Deepak and Rahul’s experience building and scaling some of India’s most beloved games, we are excited to partner with them as they build a new-age gaming company from India with global ambitions.”
Sahaj Gaming’s 1ludo, recently launched in beta, has already seen 25,000 pre-registrations. The game is available for pre-registration on the Google Play store and is expected to go live shortly. The RMG variant of the game will be available soon after the free-to-play Google Play Store release.
Follow Startup Story
Related Posts
