QuriousBit, a casual puzzle gaming studio co-founded by Ramakrishna Reddy Y L and Shubham Joshi, former core team members of PlaySimple, has recently secured $2 million in its initial funding round. Lumikai, a leading VC fund in India specializing in Gaming and Interactive media, took the lead in this investment round, with General Catalyst joining as co-investors. The company aims to utilize the funds from this seed round to create a new benchmark in innovative puzzle games built in India for global audiences. The founders will be investing heavily in curating a stellar team to build a high-quality casual mobile gaming studio.

Salone Sehgal, Founding General Partner, Lumikai stated, "A fresh and innovative approach both in game design and distribution is imperative to achieve category-leading success in the highly competitive global casual gaming market given current market conditions. Ram and Shubham’s deep thinking, category expertise, and design orientation deeply impressed us. We are excited to be on the QuriousBit journey with them".

The founders of the studio bring a wealth of experience and success in the gaming industry. Together, they have built games that have amassed over 125 million installations and generated a combined revenue of over USD 350 million, including seven titles with positive EBITDA margins. Prior to establishing QuriousBit, Ram held the position of Assistant General Manager at PlaySimple Games, a global leader in word games, which was acquired by MTG for over USD 500 million in 2021. Meanwhile, Shubham served as the Principal Software Engineer at PlaySimple Games.

Ramakrishna Reddy Y L, Founder, QuriousBit, said "We see a huge opportunity in casual puzzle games beyond match-3 and blast genres. We believe some of these genres are ripe to disrupt with innovative core gameplay mechanics and deeper narratives. Our aim is to build a world class gaming studio based out of India, entertaining global audiences. Lumikai and General Catalyst partnering with us in this journey positions us well to achieve it".

"At General Catalyst, we are believers of audacious founders from India building for the world. When we met Rama and Shubham, we became fans of their deep expertise, having driven the growth of PlaySimple's games to over $100M in revenues, resulting in one of the best exits in the Indian ecosystem to date," said Anand Chandrasekaran, Partner at General Catalyst. "We are honored to be an early partner in QuriousBit's journey, and excited about the team's creative approach to puzzle games".