Matiks: Revolutionizing Mobile Gaming with Brain-Boosting Fun
Over the past decade, head-to-head brain games like QuizUp rocketed in popularity, reaching at one point millions of users. After that, battle royale games like Fortnite and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds had their moment in the spotlight. Lately, growth of mobile games has slowed down amid a barrage of AI content across platforms. Now, the India-based gaming company Matiks wants to steer people away from AI-riddled timelines with its math, logic, and brain-game puzzle platform.
Breaking New Ground in the Gaming Industry
The Matiks app has been making waves since its inception two years ago. The platform has achieved significant growth this year, with daily users surging from 22,000 at the start of the year to over 300,000 by September. In the same month, Matiks boasted 2.2 million monthly active users, attracting keen interest from investors excited about its potential.
Significant Funding Boost
On Monday, Matiks announced a successful $10 million pre-Series A funding round. Leading the investment was General Catalyst, with participation from notable figures like Indian entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, alongside existing investors InfoEdge Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners, and Untitled Ventures. This latest round of funding brings the company’s total capital raised to over $13.5 million.
The Visionaries Behind Matiks
Founded by college friends Sudhanshu Bhatia, Mohan Kumar, and Sushant Timmapur, Matiks is the brainchild of Bhatia, who has a background in competitive mental math. He conceptualized the idea while working at American Express, focusing on anti-money laundering strategies. “For the last 10 years, the platforms have made entertainment consumption easy, but much of it is brain slop. We started exploring how we can make math-related games fun and entertaining like the other content,” Bhatia told TechCrunch over a call.
Bhatia emphasized that a competitive ecosystem already exists for mental math, puzzles, and memory games. “We wanted to make our app as entertaining as physical sports, so we opted for a dual format,” he explained.
Engaging Gameplay and User Experience
Within the app, users can select from Math, Puzzle, Memory, and Logic categories, playing games against bots to practice before challenging real players. Users also enjoy challenges and quests, earning points, maintaining streaks, and unlocking new games.
Having tried the games for over a week, I found them to be a delightful distraction, particularly enjoying games that can be completed in a few minutes. Impressively, the app refrains from pushing excessive in-game purchases or displaying intrusive ads.
Monetization and Market Expansion
Matiks has recently shifted focus from user growth to monetization, testing a subscription model that unlocks game analysis, tips, tricks, practice, and additional features. The platform also offers in-game purchases to bypass certain challenges, maintain streaks, and boost XP points.
Though most players hail from India, the startup is gaining traction in other markets like the U.S., South Korea, and Japan, with plans to introduce localization to further penetrate these regions.
Innovative Approaches with AI
While Matiks aims to counter AI-dominated content, it hasn’t entirely dismissed AI’s potential. The company has launched an experimental game-creation platform named Jelo, enabling users to create and share games. This venture positions Matiks in competition with platforms like Google’s Playground.
With a team of 41 full-time employees, Matiks plans to utilize its latest funding to scale this platform and explore new markets.
Investor Confidence and Future Prospects
Rahul Humayun, a partner at General Catalyst, expressed confidence in Matiks, highlighting the product’s iteration pace and user engagement. “We found the Matiks vision, product, and most importantly the community to be truly N of 1. The team’s product taste and pace of iteration made it a no-brainer,” said Humayun. The remarkable product love and power user behavior signal promising monetization potential, with early results already looking promising. The depth of engagement across features like duels, social interactions, Snac, and user-generated content further enhances their journey.
For further details on Matiks’ recent developments, visit the original article Here.
“`
