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Gaming-focused venture fund Lumikai announced it has invested $1.5 million, along with Play Ventures, in a pre-Series A round in the Indian midcore sports studio All-Star Games (previously Deftouch).

“We’re buzzing to work alongside Lumikai fund,” said All-Star Games CEO and Co-Founder Ninad Bhagwat. “Their deep sector experience and strategic support will position us at the top of the game for the next part of our journey. Together with Harri (Manninen) and Henric (Suuronen) at Play Ventures, it’s an absolutely dream combination for the studio.” 

The startup is looking to hire people for different roles. The startup was founded by Ninad and Keshav Sunder, who grew up playing mobile games and bring a native understanding of the nuances derived from the best in the global games market. 

Justin Keeling, General Partner at Lumikai, said: “Our investment in All-Star represents the conflux of two massive white spaces — deeper midcore gaming for India’s 400 million gamers and the potential to build a next-generation, world-class cricket gaming franchise with true mass appeal. We’ve known Ninad and Keshav for over a year and they have proven themselves to be exactly the founders we’ve been looking for to build titles in this space that will be played and loved by millions of sports fans.”   

Lumikai specialises in live multiplayer sports games, with an initial focus on the midcore cricket market. The statement said the studio’s first title, Cricket Star, was developed as a hyper casual game by the two founders and drew over 60 percent D1 retention.

Suuronen, Founding Partner at Play Ventures, said: “We at Play are super excited to team up with Lumikai and invest into the amazing founding team of All-Star Games — our first game studio investment in India.”

It also said their second title RCB Cricket was downloaded by over one million players in five days and topped the Play Store charts, later rising to over three million downloads. The studio’s ambitious next title, All Star Cricket, is currently in MVP and is being built as the definitive mobile experience for the world’s 2.5 billion cricket fans.

All-Star Games Co-Founder and CTO Keshav said: “We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Lumikai and Play Ventures. Being industry veterans and highly successful game builders themselves, their insights, hands-on feedback, and access to the world’s best talent and strategic partners will help take the All-Star franchise to the next level.”