LILA Games is a Bengaluru-based free-to-play (F2P) mobile game studio founded in 2020 by Joseph Kim, Paul Leydon, and Avinash Pandey. The studio is developing its first F2P shooter title, an FPS called 'BLACK', designed with deep social hooks. Its founders have collectively developed multiple top-grossing mobile games that have amassed hundreds of millions of players. LILA will use the new capital to expand its Bengaluru team and accelerate development of the shooter title. The company emphasizes a culture-first approach focused on organisational and product improvement and believes India’s emergence in gaming provides a long-term structural advantage. In November 2020 the startup raised $2.8 million in a seed round to expand hiring and establish its studio in India. Lila Games is creating a new subgenre of mobile shooter with a free-to-play title currently dubbed Project B.L.A.C.K. The founding team includes Joseph Kim (former chief product officer at Sega and studio lead at FunPlus), Paul Leydon (former lead game designer at FunPlus and Machine Zone), and Avinash Pandey (who led development on Mask Gun, which generated over 40 million organic installs). The company says it will base development in Bangalore and plans to open an office and recruit developers as soon as the pandemic allows; the U.S. side of the team is expected to remain small (around five to ten people). Lila Games aims to apply monetization and social lessons from 4X strategy games to shooters rather than rely solely on battle-pass cosmetic buying. The team positions the product to be a flagship, global title that leverages India’s cost structure while targeting worldwide audiences. The company has raised capital to build the studio and fund development.

Total raised

$13M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Mar 2022