Online gaming start-up Gamiana raises angel funding from Indian Angel Network

BANGALORE: Gaming start-up Gamiana has raised funding of under $1 million from the Indian Angel Network (IAN).

The start-up, which was founded in 2008, is set to launch two online video games Jamia Online, a virtual world targeted at teens, and Vinashi, a real time strategy game. The games are platform independent, which means players can access them from computers and mobile phones.

The company intends to use the funding to expand in India and to emerging markets like Brazil, Turkey, and the Philippines. "We found the company interesting as they are doing cost-effective game development in India, but are targeting the fast growing emerging market," said Chetan Shah, Member, IAN. In fact, the company is launching their first product, Jamia, in Turkey in the next few weeks before introducing it in the Indian market.

The online games market is estimated to be over $11 billion and is expected to grow to over $ 28 billion in 2015, according to data sourced from Gartner. "The basic games will be available for free, but we intend to earn revenues from premium applications within the games," said Vishal Golia, co-founder of Gamiana.

The funding is IAN's first this calendar year. In 2011, IAN, which has a base of around 200 angel investors, funded 10 start-ups.