Delhi-based edtech company Outscal has closed its seed funding round with $1.5 million funding from venture capital firm Kalaari Capital. Founded by Mayank Grover, Outscal is building a community-first, ed-tech platform to upscale talent in the gaming industry. It helps candidates excel in their game development, and Web 3 careers through mentorship and placement assistance.
Vani Kola, managing director of the early-stage VC firm Kalaari Capital, says Outscal is enabling many new careers in the gaming industry, with over 250+ students enrolled and 100+ game-development studios as hiring partners.
"Delighted to partner with Mayank Grover and his team as they look to solve one of the biggest challenges in the gaming industry: the shortage of tech talent," she adds.
Claiming to be the only startup to offer game development education, Outscal says it has helped hundreds of passionate people land jobs in the gaming industry via its game development programs, many of them with no coding experience.
It has partnered with over 100 gaming studios in India, including PTW, GSN Games, and startups like nCore Games, LILA Games, Playshifu, among others. The starup's Game Academy has two core products -- one for companies or studios looking to hire talent and the second for learners and professionals.
“There are over 5,000+ tech colleges in India, and yet we lack structured programs in game development that align with the industry needs. On the other hand, companies end up either having positions open for months or hiring talent and then have to spend internal senior resources on upskilling the talent pool for their needs. We’re bridging this gap between passionate builders across ages and industry requirements," Grover, who has previously worked with gaming studios like Electronic Arts, Kixeye, DeNA, and Junglee Games across USA and India.
Outscal is now expanding its offerings to acquire users who want to build projects in Web 3.0.
Web 3.0 is the latest iteration of the world wide web comprising of concepts such as blockchain, token-based economics and decentralization.
Globally, the gaming market is expected to cross $230 billion in 2022. Games made up just 6.1% of global spending in the entertainment and media sector in 2017. By 2026, that share is expected to cross 11%. While there is a massive demand for new gaming IPs, one of the biggest impediments is a huge shortage of tech talent in gaming.
There are 250,000 jobs in the global gaming industry annually, of which more than 50% are entry-level. In addition, there are 1.25 million jobs globally if gaming is combined with Web3, which is estimated to be an indicative $6.25 billion market.