Studio Sirah secures $2.6 million in funding led by Kalaari Capital and Lumikai

• ByStartupStory     |    January 25, 2023

A Bengaluru-based gaming studio, Studio Sirah announced on Wednesday that it has raised $2.6 million in funding led by early stage venture capital firm Kalaari Capital and existing investor Lumikai, a gaming and interactive media-focused venture fund, underlining the growing investor interest in studios building games based on Indian culture.

Co-founder of Studio Sirah, Abhaas Shah stated, ”Over the last year, we have worked hard to build a mid-core gaming studio from scratch, and launched a game which has both cultural resonance and global quality. It is evident that there is a huge (and growing) market for uniquely Indian content. Over the coming decades, we hope to not only entertain Indian gamers, but to take a slice of India to the world at large.”

The company will utilize the funds raised to globally launch its flagship gaming title ‘Kurukshetra: Ascension’ by June 2023. The proceeds will also go towards building its second, yet-to-be-titled game.

Previously, the company raised $830,000 seed funding from Lumikai and a clutch of angel investors, including Nodwin Games founder Akshat Rathee, Stillfront Games chief operating officer Alexis Bonte, InMobi cofounder Piyush Shah, BCG partner Roshni Rathi, and Google Cloud Asia Pacific gaming head Sameer Pitalwalla.

Studio Sirah’s first title ‘Kurukshetra: Ascension’ is a free-to-play card battle strategy game themed on India’s two great epics – the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Players take the roles of ancient legends such as Arjuna and Sugriva, collect divine Astras and mythical creatures (from Apsaras to Daityas), and battle it out to the top in online duels.The company also stated that it is now adding in an “expansive story mode” that will comprise “warring gods, conflicting philosophy, and the nature of Dharma itself, where player choices determine the fate of the universe”. Kurukshetra-Ascension is available in early access on Google’s Play Store and Valve’s Steam and claims to have clocked over 120,000 organic downloads in the beta phase.

Vamshi Krishna Reddy, Partner at Kalaari Capital commented on the developments “There is immense potential for more core IPs to come out of India. With stellar artwork and innovative gameplay – Kurukshetra has already garnered a lot of appreciation from users and we are excited with what lies ahead”.

According to market research firm Niko Partners, India is the fastest-growing gaming market in Asia, with a projected revenue of $704.5 million for mobile and PC gaming in 2022. The market is expected to continue growing at a rate of 21.1% annually, reaching $1.4 billion by 2026, not including revenue from real money games. 34% of gamers in India are reported to have spent money on non-real money game titles in 2022.

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