Bangalore-based Bombay Play raises $7 million in its latest funding round

Bangalore-based Bombay Play has raised $7 million in a new round of funding.  Focused on “hypersocial gaming,” the company wishes to build more instant games on platforms such as Facebook with the new fund.

The company has now raised over $9.5 million in capital, and the latest financing more than quadruples the valuation of its Pre-Series A round in 2020.

Bombay Play has already seen success with more than 40 million players worldwide. It however isn’t making blockchain games.

The funding round was led by Kalaari Capital while also witnessing participation from all of its existing investors namely Lumikai Fund, Leo Capital, and PlayCo. Other new investors like Winzo, AdvantEdge VC, AMEA Ventures among others.

“We’re raising money at a time when crypto is all the rage and pitching a traditional gaming company was not so cool,” said Oliver Jones, CEO of Bombay Play, who started the company with Abhas Saroha. “We found ourselves saying, ‘We are good game developers. And that’s what we’re going to pitch. We’re not going to sort of sell you anything other than that we make great games.’ We purely relied on things like traction, user engagement and revenue.”

“We’ve found some really great success in these instant games. These games don’t require downloads,” Jones further added. “The sweet spot we found is the games that are easy to pick up, and super easy to socialize.”

With the capital raised, the company plans to invest it in scaling its existing “hypersocial” game offerings, supporting upcoming projects while also devoting part of the money. Word games are one of the categories the company will focus on.

Bombay Play’s games include titles like Dice Merge Puzzle, Card Party, and Daily Word Puzzle. These games take about three months or six months to develop, Jones said. The company tries to soft launch its games as early as it can.

Last year, the company launched eight games. This year, it plans to launch 24. The company that is focused on Facebook Instant Games, is planning to distribute its games across multiple platforms and channels.