LightFury Games Raises $11 Million Funding Led by Blume, V3 Ventures; MS Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya Join as Investors

Bengaluru-based game-tech studio LightFury Games has raised $11 million in a pre-Series A funding round backed by a rare mix of institutional investors and India’s top cricketers. Announced on April 23, 2026, the LightFury Games funding round includes Blume Ventures, V3 Ventures, Japan’s MIXI, and Times Internet, alongside MS Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and four other Indian cricket stars.

The proceeds will primarily fund the completion of LightFury’s debut AAA title, eCricket, and strengthen its live operations infrastructure ahead of a global launch slated for late 2026.

LightFury Games Funding Round Details and Investor Lineup

The pre-Series A round drew participation from new and existing institutional backers including Blume Ventures, V3 Ventures, MIXI, and Times Internet. On the cricket side, the lineup features MS Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Shreyas Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Tilak Varma and Sai Sudharsan, who have come on board as strategic investors.

With this round, LightFury Games has now raised a total of $19.5 million across two rounds. The company had previously secured $8.5 million in seed funding in April 2024, led by Blume Ventures with participation from MIXI, Gemba Capital, Cred founder Kunal Shah and Unacademy co-founder Gaurav Munjal.

CEO Karan Shroff confirmed that the cricketers will appear as playable characters within eCricket when the title launches. “This is likely the first time MS Dhoni is appearing in a cricket game and he is going to be exclusively on our game,” Shroff said in an interview with Moneycontrol.

Inside eCricket: LightFury Games’ Debut AAA Cricket Title

Founded in 2024 by Karan Shroff, Anurag Banerjee and Tina Balachandran, LightFury Games operates out of Bengaluru with a 100-member team. The founding trio brings collective experience spanning more than 40 AAA game titles, including stints at Unacademy and Tencent Games.

eCricket is being built on Unreal Engine 5 with a mobile-first design, targeting iOS and Android at launch before expanding to PC and consoles by 2027. The game features physics-led gameplay, strategic batting and bowling systems, dynamic AI commentary and broadcast-style presentation.

Earlier in 2026, the studio secured a global player roster license covering over 600 professional cricketers, featuring stars like Chris Gayle, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Kane Williamson, Pat Cummins, Jos Buttler, Travis Head and Andre Russell — one of the largest rosters ever assembled in cricket gaming.

Artificial intelligence is central to the studio’s production strategy. AI motion capture and real-time commentary systems allow LightFury to compress the typical three-to-five-year AAA development cycle to roughly two years. Three controlled playtests have been completed so far, with more planned ahead of the public launch.

Why Top Cricketers Are Backing the LightFury Games Funding Round

MS Dhoni said the studio is attempting to close a long-standing gap in cricket gaming. “I’ve seen a lot of cricket games over the years, and there’s always been something missing. When LightFury showed me what they were working on, I felt they were trying to close that gap,” he said.

Jasprit Bumrah, who is exclusively managed by RISE Worldwide, pointed to authenticity as his reason to invest. “Cricket is a game of fine margins, and that’s what stood out to me about eCricket. The focus on detail and authenticity is impressive.”

Hardik Pandya added that eCricket’s ambition won him over. “It is not trying to make cricket smaller for gaming. It is trying to make gaming rise to the scale of cricket. That is a bold idea.”

Karthik Reddy, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Blume Ventures, likened the bet to pioneering a new category. “In LightFury, we’ve seen a team come together from different parts of the world, with a shared passion and incredible attention to detail, depth and creativity.”

Arjun Vaidya, Managing Partner at V3 Ventures, called cricket the biggest underserved sport in gaming. “Cricket is a uniquely complex sport, and its place at the intersection of culture, community and technology for nearly a quarter of the world’s population makes the opportunity around eCricket even more exciting.”

What This Means for India’s Gaming Industry and AAA Ambitions

India’s gaming ecosystem is projected to reach $9.89 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 14.55% between 2026 and 2031, while the global gaming market is expected to cross $400 billion in the coming years. Cricket commands a worldwide audience of over 2.5 billion fans, yet the sport has never had a definitive AAA video game in the way football, basketball or American football do.

eCricket enters a competitive Indian field that includes Dream Sports’ Dream Cricket, Krafton-owned Nautilus Mobile’s Real Cricket and Nazara Technologies-owned Nextwave Multimedia’s World Cricket Championship. But LightFury is positioning itself at the premium AAA end of the market, modelled on global franchises like EA Sports FC.

For Indian gaming startups, the round signals two shifts: AAA-grade studios can now raise pre-Series A capital from global strategic investors, and athlete-backed cap tables are becoming a credible distribution lever in consumer categories. For more India startup funding coverage, visit KnowStartup.

“Over the next 12 to 18 months, the focus is going to be entirely on eCricket. After that, we will start diversifying and accelerating onto different IPs,” Shroff said.

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.

Read more

• Linkedin