Blacklight Studio Works Pvt. Ltd, which operates gaming startup Blacklight Games, has raised an undisclosed amount in its maiden institutional funding round, led by Noida-based investment firm Udyat Ventures.
Kratos Studios, the brainchild of former CEO of Nazara Technologies, Manish Agrawal, alongside Polygon Ventures and Dexter Ventures also participated in this funding round.
BlackLight plans to use the funds to expand into new markets, hiring and invest in artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance player experience through personalisation.
"Through the utilisation of AI and ML in gaming, we are crafting an unparalleled gaming experience,” said BlackLight’s co-founder Anupam Srivastava.
Noida-based BlackLight was co-founded by Srivastava and Shruti Sarraf in 2011. The company is the creator of the popular computer game, Ludo Superstar.
"From the very start, our aim has been to establish a global brand for classic games. The global stage holds potential as billions of smartphone users is each a potential gamer," said Saraf.
It claims to have over 200 million downloads across three titles and its flagship game Ludo SuperStar has been one of the most downloaded Ludo titles.
"Anupam and Shruti have built Blacklight grounds up and we are looking forward to building an international gaming studio brand from India," said Rahul Gupta, managing partner at Udyat Ventures.
Udyat Ventures is the family office of the of Harsh Gupta, managing director of Udyat Group. The firm, last year, had backed Pune-based IoT startup ThingsUp in its seed funding round.
Dexter Capital was the exclusive financial adviser to the company on this transaction. RKP & Associates served as the legal adviser.
"Without a single rupee of external capital, Shruti and Anupam have built Blacklight to be among the top 10 gaming publishers in India with a cumulative download of 200 mn+ and three of their games – Ludo Superstar, Callbreak Superstar, and Carrom Superstar are among the top five ranked games in their respective categories," said Devendra Agrawal from Dexter Capital.
Blacklight’s other backer Kratos Studio is looking to give Rs 50 crore in grants to Indian gaming companies.
“I have seen closely the data-driven mindset and work ethics of Shruti and Anupam as they went about building a Blacklight Games fully bootstrapped and I believe with this round of funding they would scale to global markets, leveraging the solid foundation they have built thus far,” said Manish Agarwal, co-founder, Kratos Studios.
