Bengaluru-based nCORE Games said it has raised $10 million (around Rs 75 crore) as a part of its Series A funding, co-led by Galaxy Interactive and Animoca Brands.
The round also saw participation from former Google executive Amit Singhal, Polygon Co-Founder Sandeep Nailwal, Ram Madhvani, Rakesh Kaul, Mannan Adenwala, Sanjay Narang, Taj Haslani, Kristian Segerstrale, Sanjay Gondal, Vedant Baali, Kartik Prabhakara, Peter Leung, Yashraj Akashi, and Akshay Chaturvedi, among other angel investors.
nCORE Games said that it will use the fresh funds to offer financial support to the studios so to build a metaverse that will span many products.
Interoperability and actual ownership of in-game customisation elements will benefit gamers and so the firm wants to expand these titles, as well as other new games, into the Web3 and play-to-earn realms.
The company operated by nCORE Gaming and IT solutions Pvt Ltd was co-founded in 2019 by Vishal Gondal and Dayanidhi M G. Gondal. nCORE Games creates and publishes categories for the Indian subcontinent.
Currently, the company has released two mobile games: FAU:G and Pro Cricket Mobile.
Vishal Gondal’s previous gaming venture, Indiagames was sold to Disney, while Dayanidhi has experience in running over 100 games in different genres and scaling up game studios like RockYou and Digital Chocolate.
nCORE has recently expanded its management team helmed by Kanwaljit Bombra as CEO, Alok Jain as the head of finance and Agastya Samat leading business development and legal operations.
"nCORE Games was started by experienced gaming industry professionals with strong pedigrees. This is one of our most promising investments in India, which has a large gaming market with massive growth potential.
nCORE Games has the right team to leverage blockchain and NFTs in games to deliver digital property rights to players, and we look forward to many successful products as we move toward a global open metaverse," said Yat Siu, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of Animoca Brands.
Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Bitski, Harmony, Alien Worlds, and Star Atlas are among Animoca Brands' more than 100 investments in NFT-related firms and decentralised initiatives that are helping to construct the open metaverse.
Galaxy Interactive is a subsidiary of Galaxy Digital, a publicly-traded diversified merchant bank focusing on digital assets and blockchain technology, whereas Animoca Brands (and its subsidiaries) create and distribute a diverse range of blockchain games, conventional games and branded items. Gaming startups in India have attracted deals worth $1.6 billion in the first nine months of 2021, exceeding the total value of investments in the sector in the last five years, according to a new report by investment banking platform Maple Capital Advisors.
Other gaming startups that have raised funds recently include vernacular social gaming platform WinZO; and Mumbai-based game streaming platform Loco, which raised $9 million (about Rs 66.8 crore) from PUBG developer Krafton.
Mumbai's Dream Sports raised $840 million at a valuation of $8 bn from large private equity (PE)players. In March, Dream Sports had also scored a $400 million funding from investors including Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm TCV, which made its first India investment.
Fantasy sports platform, Mobile Premier League (MPL) became a unicorn with its Series E funding at a pre-money valuation of $2.3 billion (Rs 16,935 crore) in September 2021.