Matiks, an India-based gaming company, said it has raised $10 million in pre-Series A funding led by General Catalyst. Indian entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala and existing investors Info Edge Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners and Untitled Ventures also participated. The round brings Matiks' total funding to more than $13.5 million.
The startup operates a namesake app for math, logic and brain game puzzles, positioning it as an alternative to AI-heavy content feeds. Matiks said its daily users grew from 22,000 earlier this year to more than 300,000 by September, and the app recorded 2.2 million monthly active users that month. The company was founded by college friends Sudhanshu Bhatia, Mohan Kumar and Sushant Timmapur.
Matiks users pick from Math, Puzzle, Memory and Logic categories, playing games against bots to practice and then against real players. Players can take on challenges and quests to earn points, keep up streaks and unlock new games. The app began testing a subscription this month that unlocks game analysis, tips and tricks, practice and additional features, and it also offers in-game purchases to skip certain challenges, maintain a streak and boost XP points.
Bhatia, who has a background in competitive mental math, said he began working on the idea while at American Express on an anti-money laundering strategy. He said the team wanted to make math-related games as entertaining as physical sports by combining practice and competition. He added that while most players are in India, the app has also drawn traction in the U.S., South Korea and Japan, and that Matiks plans localization for the latter two markets.
Matiks has also introduced an experimental game creation platform called Jelo, which lets users build their own games and lets others play them. The company said there is heavy competition in that area, including Google's new platform called Playground. Matiks has 41 full-time employees and aims to use the funding to scale Jelo and expand into newer markets.
Rahul Humayan, a partner at General Catalyst, said in an email that the product's pace of iteration and user engagement gave the firm encouraging signs. He described the Matiks vision, product and community as genuinely unique, and said the team's product judgment and rate of iteration made the investment an easy call. Humayan added that strong product affection and power-user behavior, with early monetization results looking promising, are leading indicators.
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