Game developer LightFury Games has raised US$11 million (around ₹103 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by Blume Ventures, V3 Ventures, MIXI, and Times Internet.
Well-known Indian cricketers like MS Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hardik Pandya also invested in this round. Other players such as Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, and Sai Sudharsan also joined as investors.
The company will use this money to complete its cricket game called eCricket and build systems to run and update the game after launch, including adding new content and features.
“India has long been one of the world’s biggest gaming markets. Yet it has not been able to build a truly world-class AAA sports title. With eCricket, we want to change that. We are building from India for the world, with a very high bar on quality, deep competitive gameplay, and true-to-sport authenticity,” said Karan Shroff, Co-founder & CEO, LightFury Games.
“I’ve seen a lot of cricket games over the years, and there’s always been something missing. When LightFury showed me what they were working on, I felt they were trying to close that gap,” said MS Dhoni.
“It’s a big undertaking, building something like this out of India for a global audience. I’m here to contribute what I can from my time in the game, and make sure the details hold up. The rest is up to them, and from what I’ve seen, they’ll do a good job,” he added. Over the years, MS Dhoni has backed several companies such as Kuku, Cars24, and EMotorad.
Bumrah said, “Cricket is a game of fine margins and that’s what stood out to me about eCricket. The focus on detail and authenticity is impressive. I’m happy to back a team that is thinking deeply about the sport and building something meaningful from India.”
Founded in 2024 by Karan Shroff, Tina Balachandran and Anurag Banerjee, Bengaluru-based LightFury Games wants to target the massive global cricket fan base of more than 2.5 billion people. The company feels that this audience is still not properly served by advanced video games.
Their upcoming game, eCricket, is being developed using Unreal Engine 5. It will be a live, ongoing game with realistic physics and AI-based commentary to make the experience more lifelike.
The company has also secured rights to include more than 600 professional cricketers from around the world, making the game more authentic and engaging.
India is already one of the largest gaming markets in the world in terms of users. However, most companies there focus on simple or mid-level games. The market is expected to grow to around $10 billion by the early 2030s driven by more smartphone users and cheaper internet access.
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