When Sanjiv Mehta, 57, a government employee, reached the pinnacle of boredom during the principal period of the lockdown in 2020, he unconsciously got into a habit-forming diversion activity — playing Ludo Star on his mobile. The online version of his favorite childhood game was an incredible stress buster as well as something that assisted his family with getting to know each other. “During the lockdown, passing time, especially during the afternoons, was proving to be incredibly difficult. Online Ludo was a blessing for my family and me. “We would not even realize that we had spent hours playing the game,” he says.

Since the earlier days, the game of dice has united families and friends and has been a preferred hobby for some. Putting money on this, Gameberry Labs, the creators of Ludo Star, headquartered in Bengaluru and helmed by IIT graduates Afsar Ahmad and Govind Agarwal, began its excursion into the universe of mobile gaming. From the time we were studying at IIT-Kharagpur, Govind and I had a shared passion for building great mobile games—games that people would love to grow old with. “We built games that were simple but deep enough to keep players engaged,” says Ahmad, co-founder.

Gameberry Labs began activities in 2017 by launching Ludo Star. Ahmad and Agarwal saw the developing frenzy for Ludo in the nation and considered it a chance to do something worth remembering. “We quit our jobs and started developing the game. We wanted to bring classic board games to mobiles with a rich social experience layer that helped friends and family connect, even if people were miles apart,” says Ahmad, who heads the organization’s product, art, and UX verticals, while Agarwal deals with the designing and innovation divisions. Another IIT-Kharagpur graduate, who is a founding member, heads marketing and growth.

After a long period of development, Gameberry Labs now has two well-known social multiplayer games — Ludo Star and Parchisi Star — with over 200 million downloads and over 5 million daily active users. Two new games in the gaming market—Backgammon Friends and Word League—are presently being beta-tested in Turkey and the UK. “All the games in our portfolio are socially engaging and designed to enable players to break away from stress, connect and compete with others while adding joy to their everyday lives,” says Ahmad.

“In the Indian gaming market, western developers were the leaders earlier. But then offerings from developers like Gameberry Labs and Gametion did something brilliant—they gauged the taste of Indian gamers. They are producing games attractive to Indians of all ages, “explains Roland Landers, CEO of the All India Gaming Federation. “They are disrupting the gaming market landscape in ways that were not possible a few years ago.”

Last November, Gameberry Labs went past the $100-million milestone in lifetime income. For fiscal years (CY) 2017 to 2019, development was somewhat leveled (CY17: $6.6 million; CY18: $10.3 million; CY19: $7.5 million). It shot up significantly in CY20 ($34.9 million) and CY21 ($40.7 million). The organization is bootstrapped, has a positive income, and has no venture capital (VC) financing. “We have been profitable since our first year. We have an EBITDA margin of more than 50% and a high revenue per employee ($400K). “We don’t need to secure VC funding to scale the business,” claims Ahmad.

Gameberry Labs started activities with the investment funds of both founders. The organization has a free-to-play plan of action where players are not charged to play the game. Notwithstanding, they have the choice to re-roll the dice utilizing an in-game virtual currency called “gems,” which can be bought from the “shop” segment. “This monetization model has worked for us,” says Ahmad. The revenue is driven by in-app purchases (IAP) from the game and rewarded ads. “IAP monetization drives the revenue model for us…” 70 percent of our revenue comes from IAPs and the rest from rewarded ads,” he says. Saudi Arabia, the US, and Spain are the company’s top gaming markets in revenues.

Credit: Forbes India