India-based gaming startup Matiks announced on Monday that it secured $10 million in pre-Series A funding led by General Catalyst. The company wants to grow its math, logic, and brain game puzzle platform as mobile gaming growth slows down amid an increase in artificial intelligence content.
The application has existed for two years, though user numbers increased this year. Daily active users grew from 22,000 earlier in the year to exceed 300,000 by September. Monthly active users reached 2.2 million during that same month.
General Catalyst led the pre-Series A round, with contributions from Indian entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala along with current investors Info Edge Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners, and Untitled Ventures. This latest investment brings the total funds raised by the company to over $13.5 million.
College friends Sudhanshu Bhatia, Mohan Kumar, and Sushant Timmapur established Matiks. Bhatia, who has experience in competitive mental math, developed the concept while working on anti-money laundering strategies at American Express.
"For the last 10 years, the platforms have made entertainment consumption easy, but much of it is brain slop. We started exploring how we can make math-related games fun and entertaining like the other content," Bhatia said over a call.
"Since I've had this background in mental math, I knew that a competitive ecosystem exists there. We got to know that the same exists for puzzles and memory. We wanted to make our app as entertaining as physical sports, so we opted for a dual format," Bhatia added.
Players select from Math, Puzzle, Memory, and Logic categories inside the application. They can compete against bots for practice before playing real opponents, while quests and challenges let participants earn points, keep streaks going, and unlock fresh games.
Matiks previously concentrated entirely on user expansion and began testing a subscription option this month. The subscription provides game analysis, hints, practice modes, and extra features. Users can also buy items in the game to bypass specific challenges, preserve streaks, and increase XP points.
Most players reside in India, but Bhatia noted that the company attracts users from the United States, South Korea, and Japan. The firm intends to add localization features to expand further in South Korea and Japan.
Despite positioning itself against artificial intelligence content, Matiks incorporates the technology through an experimental game creation tool named Jelo. This tool allows users to build custom games for others to play, placing it alongside competing services like Google's Playground.
The startup employs 41 full-time staff members and plans to direct the fresh capital toward scaling this platform and entering additional markets.
General Catalyst partner Rahul Humayan stated in an email that the startup's iteration speed and user participation provided positive signals.
"We found the Matiks vision, product, and most importantly the community to be truly N of 1. The team's product taste and pace of iteration made it a no-brainer," Humayan remarked. He also noted that strong user engagement across duels, social features, Snacc, and creation indicates promising monetization potential.
