Indian Gaming Startup ARC Raises Rs 10.5 Crore, Backed by Meta APAC Exec, for ARC X1 Console

Bengaluru-based gaming technology startup ARC has closed a Rs 10.5 crore pre-seed funding round, led by Chimera VC and MIXI Global Investments, to push its debut hardware product, the ARC X1 portable gaming system, toward commercial launch. Meta APAC Director Dhruv Vohra also joined the round in a personal capacity, signalling early confidence from both venture and strategic angel investors in India’s nascent dedicated-gaming-hardware category.

The round comes at a moment when India’s mobile-first gamer base is large but still underserved by purpose-built handheld devices — a gap ARC is betting its entire product roadmap on.

What the Rs 10.5 Crore Funding Will Be Used For

ARC said the fresh capital will go toward three priorities: hardware engineering and product validation for the ARC X1, preparations for manufacturing and supply-chain operations, and continued development of OWL OS, the company’s proprietary gaming operating system. A portion of the round will also fund team expansion, go-to-market activity, and partnerships spanning gaming, cloud, content, and technology.

The ARC X1 itself is built on ARM architecture using Qualcomm chipsets and runs on OWL OS. According to the company, the device supports native Android games, PC titles through ARC’s own software stack, and cloud gaming — a three-pronged approach meant to make one handheld device useful across very different gaming habits.

The Founders Behind ARC

ARC was founded by Jobin Joseph and Kaustubh K. Jadhav, who describe the company as a platform combining hardware, software, and gaming experiences rather than a single-product device maker. Joseph said the funding would help the startup “deepen its technology, accelerate product development, and move the company closer to launching ARC X1.”

Jadhav framed the mission in more personal terms: “ARC was founded on a simple belief — access should not determine how deeply someone gets to experience gaming.” He added that the investment would help ARC bring the ARC X1 to gamers at scale.

Why Investors Are Betting on India’s Portable Gaming Console Market

Krish Anurag of Chimera VC said the firm backs companies that can “become infrastructure for the next chapter of a category,” and that ARC fit that thesis. Tomoharu Urabe of MIXI Global Investments pointed to India’s “large and passionate gaming community” as the reason the ARC X1 could make handheld gaming more accessible to a wider audience.

Their optimism lines up with broader market data. The global portable gaming console market was valued at roughly $3.89 billion in 2025, according to Grand View Research, which projects a compound annual growth rate of 9.7% between 2026 and 2033. In India specifically, dedicated gaming hardware still has comparatively low penetration versus the country’s massive smartphone-gaming base — the exact white space ARC is targeting with the ARC X1.

ARC isn’t the only Indian gaming company drawing fresh capital this year. Mobile-first studio Lightfury Games recently raised $11 million with backing from cricket stars MS Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, and Hardik Pandya, underlining how investor appetite for India’s gaming sector now spans both software studios and hardware makers like ARC.

Early Traction: More Than 50,000 on the Waitlist

ARC says more than 50,000 people have already joined the ARC X1 waitlist ahead of its commercial launch, a sign of pent-up demand among Indian gamers for a dedicated portable device. The startup has also collaborated with Qualcomm Technologies during hardware development and is running early testing and feedback programmes with gamers to refine both the ARC X1 and OWL OS before the device ships.

What’s Next for ARC and the ARC X1

With pre-seed funding now closed, ARC’s near-term roadmap centres on finishing product validation, locking in manufacturing partners, and scaling OWL OS ahead of a wider commercial rollout. If the startup can execute on supply chain and pricing, ARC X1 would arrive at a moment when Indian consumers are increasingly open to premium, dedicated gaming hardware — not just smartphones — as the category matures globally.

The round also arrives as India’s broader early-stage funding landscape diversifies beyond traditional VC checks — for instance, Samsung’s SMA programme is now offering Indian startups non-equity grants, giving hardware and deep-tech founders more ways to fund product development without diluting ownership early on.

For now, ARC joins a small but growing list of Indian hardware startups attempting to build category-defining products rather than incremental software plays, backed by investors who are explicitly betting on infrastructure-level ambition rather than a single hit product.

Want more coverage of India’s gaming and hardware startups as funding rounds close? Follow KnowStartup for funding tracker and weekly deal alerts.

This report draws on original reporting from Times of India

Author

Sachin

Sachin Sidharth is a Digital Marketing professional with a master’s degree in Digital Marketing from Coventry University, UK. He has 10+ years of blogging and online marketing experience. He currently heads Digital Acquisition for a leading London-based Fintech firm. At KnowStartup.com He focuses on writing Digital Marketing guides and manages...

Sachin Sidharth is a Digital Marketing professional with a master’s degree in Digital Marketing from Coventry University, UK. He has 10+ years of blogging and online marketing experience. He currently heads Digital Acquisition for a leading London-based Fintech firm. At KnowStartup.com He focuses on writing Digital Marketing guides and manages KnowStartup's Digital Agency rankings of firms across multiple cities in India. You can reach him on Linkedin.

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