Matiks, a gaming startup based in India, announced a $10 million pre‑Series A round led by General Catalyst, with participation from entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala and existing backers InfoEdge Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners and Untitled Ventures. The funding brings the company’s total capital raised to more than $13.5 million.
The company, founded by college friends Sudhanshu Bhatia, Mohan Kumar and Sushant Timmapur, has seen its user base expand sharply this year. Daily active users rose from roughly 22,000 earlier in the year to over 300,000 by September, and the app recorded about 2.2 million monthly active users in the same month.
Bhatia, who previously worked on anti‑money‑laundering strategies at American Express and has a background in competitive mental math, explained that he wanted to create a platform where math‑related games could be as entertaining as mainstream titles. “For the last ten years, platforms have made entertainment consumption easy, but much of it is brain slop,” he told TechCrunch. “We started exploring how we can make math‑related games fun and entertaining like the other content.”
Matiks offers four main categories—Math, Puzzle, Memory and Logic—where users can practice against bots before challenging real opponents. The app also features quests, challenges, point systems, streaks and unlockable games. Early testers have praised the short‑play sessions and the lack of intrusive ads or aggressive in‑app purchase prompts.
While the company has focused on user acquisition, it began testing a subscription model this month that unlocks game analysis, tips, practice tools and additional features. In‑app purchases remain available for users who wish to skip challenges, maintain streaks or boost experience points.
Although most of Matiks’s players are based in India, the startup reports growing interest from the United States, South Korea and Japan, and plans to add localized content for the latter two markets.
Matiks is also experimenting with AI‑assisted content through a new game‑creation tool called Jelo, which lets users design their own games for others to play. The initiative enters a competitive space that includes Google’s Playground platform.
With a staff of 41 full‑time employees, Matiks intends to use the fresh capital to scale Jelo and expand into additional markets. Rahul Humayun, a partner at General Catalyst, said the company’s rapid iteration and strong community engagement were key factors in the investment. “We found the Matiks vision, product, and most importantly the community to be truly one of a kind. The team’s product taste and pace of iteration made it a no‑brainer,” he wrote. He added that early signs of monetisation look promising, citing high engagement across duels, social features, and the new creation tool.
The funding marks a significant milestone for Matiks as it aims to carve out a niche for brain‑training games amid a market increasingly saturated with AI‑generated content.