PlaySimple raised Series A from SaifPartners and IDG Ventures

Two top venture capital firms, SAIF Partners and IDG Ventures India have led a Rs 27 crore round of funding in Bengaluru-based mobile social gaming startup PlaySimple Games.

Raised Series A

Seller

PlaySimple

Buyer

Saif partners and IDG Ventures

Focus Sector

Gaming

Two top venture capital firms, SAIF Partners and IDG Ventures India have led a Rs 27 crore round of funding in Bengaluru-based mobile social gaming startup PlaySimple Games.

Proceeds from the Series A round of financing, will be used by the two year-old Bengaluru-based company to expand its team, and developing fresh content. This is the second round of investment by IDG Ventures in PlaySimple, having led a $500,000 seed round in the company in early 2015.

“Gaming is a huge market internationally and a very competitive one. We have known the PlaySimple team for over a year and have been amazed by the growth they have got in a very short period of time,” said Mayank Khanduja, principal at SAIF Partners.

Boutique investment bank Khetal Advisors acted as the financial advisor to PlaySimple for the transaction. The Bangalore-headquartered startup had also received $50,000 after being selected to be part of Google’s Launchpad accelerator in June earlier this year.

“Although gaming is considered be a hit-and- miss business, PlaySimple’s formula on building games and their highly data driven/analytical approach have allowed them to be successful,” said Karthik Prabhakar, director and head – Fundraising at IDG Ventures India.

Founded by ex-Zynga employees, Siddharth Jain, Preeti Reddy and Suraj Nalin, along with IIT Bombay alum Siddhanth Jain, PlaySimple largely caters to markets outside of India, namely US, Australia and Canada. It claims to have more than 10 million downloads for its two flagship products, GuessUp and WordTrek.

“Most of the capital will be used for building our team. We currently have about 22 people, and hope to ramp up that number to about 50 by end-2017. We have openings across the board, and are looking to hire product managers and designers,” Siddharth Jain told ET.

According to Jain, the B2C company is targeting a top-line of $5 million-$7 million for the financial year ending March 2017, and expects to be profitable by the end of the current fiscal. For FY 2016, it earned revenue of about $3 million.

The games developed and released by PlaySimple, and which are available on the Android and iOS platforms, as well as on social media platforms, such as Facebook, are free to download, but players will have to purchase virtual goods as they progress. An additional revenue stream is from the advertisements placed in the games.

“We deliver close to half a billion ad impressions every month,” Jain said. According to industry estimates, India’s mobile gaming market is still at a nascent stage, and estimated to be at $40-$50 million, but is growing at a CAGR of 50%.

About Seller

PlaySimple is a Bengaluru-based mobile gaming company known for developing casual, word-based games that appeal to global audiences. Its portfolio includes titles like WordTrip, WordTrek, and Daily Themed Crossword, which have gained strong traction on both Android and iOS platforms. The company focuses on building simple, engaging games with strong retention through in-app monetization and ad-based revenue.
www.playsimple.in

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