Hyderabad: Gaming investors T-Accelerate Capital and Chimera Venture Capital are betting on Hyderabad’s 1312 Interactive to build out India’s publishing infrastructure for PC and console games, backing the company’s USD 1 million (close to Rs 10 crore) seed round. Ventana Ventures, Rahul Reddy G, Rohan MC and Darini Srinivas also put money into the round.
1312 Interactive was started by gaming industry veterans Deepak Gurijala and Raviteja Mantena to help studios take culturally distinct games to global audiences. Its debut slate already includes five titles: Winds of Arcana by Brewed Games, Palm Sugar: A Village Story by Mono Tusk Studios, Souls of Bombarika by Street Lamp Games, We Are So Cooked by Dwarven Brothers and Misadventures of Space Man Biff by Prescription Studios, and the company expects to add six to eight more titles every year, according to a Times of India report.
The fresh capital is earmarked for two things: scaling the company’s indie and AA publishing business across emerging markets, and launching 1312 Playground, a developer community platform. Money will go toward production, marketing, distribution, platform partnerships, quality assurance and localisation for premium titles coming out of India and other emerging game development hubs, the company said.
T-Accelerate Capital founding partner Carol Wong said 1312 Interactive is building the piece India’s gaming ecosystem has been missing: real PC and console publishing infrastructure that can carry culturally distinct titles to a global audience. Chimaera Venture Capital’s managing and founding partner Krish Anurag said the company stood out for understanding what it takes to move a game from a studio’s vision to a global storefront. “Emerging markets are producing some of the most creative game development talent in the world, and 1312 Interactive is building the infrastructure to bring that talent to the players who are waiting for it,” he said.
For Gurijala, the round is validation of a model built around closing that infrastructure gap. “Great games can come from anywhere, but the infrastructure to take them to a global audience has historically been out of reach for many studios. With this round, we’re doubling down on our mission to close that gap, and to give developers the production, marketing, and community support they need to compete on the world stage,” he said.
Co-founder Mantena added that 1312 Playground will let developers bring in players earlier in production for testing, feedback and audience insights, shaping games around community input rather than waiting until after release.
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