Gaming-focused VC firm Lumikai launches second fund worth $50 mn

Fund will take bets in pre-seed to series A start-ups with an average ticket size ranging between $200,000 and $1.2 mn

Lumikai, a venture capital (VC) firm that supports gaming and interactive media firms, on Thursday announced the launch of its second fund targeting a $50 million corpus from global investors.

Fund II has completed its first close, with marquee investors like Japan’s Mixi and Colopl, South Korea’s Krafton and Smilegate, Finland-based decacorn Supercell, Indian gaming start-p Nazara, and the family offices of Jeejeebhoys, KCT Group, DSP Kothari, and Sattva Group.

High net worth individuals, including Ben Feder (former chief executive officer of Take Two Interactive), Jon Vlassopulos (CEO of Napster), Pankaj Gupta (founder of Gulf Islamic Investments) and Akshat Rathee (founder of Nodwin Gaming), have invested in the fund. The fund will take bets in pre-seed to series A start-ups with an average ticket size ranging between $200,000 and $1.2 million.

“Over the course of the last three years, we have witnessed over 1,400 deals and seen the industry attract investor interest, deepen founder quality and achieve liquidity events. We continue to remain bullish on the long-term potential of the India interactive market and this is our opportunity to build on the foundation we have laid,” said Salone Sehgal, founding general partner, Lumikai.

Lumikai launched its Fund I worth $40 million back in 2020. With the launch of the two new funds, the firm’s total assets under management (AUM) in India have reached $100 million.

The fund will invest in gaming areas like creator economy, technology infrastructure and virtual identities.

Lumikai Fund II already has a healthy pipeline of investments planned for deployment, including three deals at term sheet stage for companies within the content, platforms and frontier thesis areas, Sehgal said.

“Lumikai was created ground-up to be a focal point for the next generation of superstar gaming and interactive media founders. These sunrise sectors have seen tremendous tailwinds since we launched the fund, and we are privileged to have a front row seat in this revolution,” said Justin Shriram Keeling, another founding general partner at Lumikai.

The firm has separately set up a $10 million alternative investment fund (AIF) for Indian limited partners (LPs).