Meta Levels Up Indian Gaming with New Accelerator and VC Backing

The game industry in India is expanding quickly, and Mark Zuckerberg's company Meta is interested in joining.

The multibillion-dollar software company, in collaboration with four top venture capital funds—Bitkraft Ventures, Kalaari Capital, Lumikai Fund, and Elevation Capital—launched Meta Gaming Accelerator earlier this week, an incubator designed to assist small and medium gaming companies.

The goal is to first assist 20 to 30 up-and-coming Indian creators and studios by providing them with strategic direction in the areas of AI-led game creation, cross-border scaling, user acquisition, and monetisation.

Arun Srinivas, Managing Director and Head, Meta (India), stated that although the Indian gaming community is a hive of creativity and invention, “we must close the gap between talent and opportunity in order to realise its full potential.”

Meta to Assist Creator in Infusing AI Tools

Additionally, Meta will prioritise assisting Indian creators in incorporating its AI tools—such as Llama—into their game development and optimisation procedures.

According to Anuj Tandon, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, there is a significant need for the ecosystem to unite and support small and medium-sized gaming businesses in developing gaming markets like India.

Given that gaming is a potent catalyst for both cultural expression and commercial opportunity, Meta claims that its Gaming Accelerator expands on the company's ongoing investments in fostering and expanding India's digital economy.

The goal of Meta's Gaming Accelerator programme is to assist up-and-coming game studios and developers. It will give them the tools they need to expand internationally, improve their games, and build their businesses. 

The programme includes a variety of features, including ad monetisation and platform integration (Meta Ads, Audience Network), player acquisition and campaign optimisation strategies, and Llama and AI seminars for game design, personalisation, and storytelling.

India Second Largest Market for Gaming

India has the largest mobile gaming market and the second-largest gaming market overall. With 520 million users—second only to China—and 1,888 gaming startups, the nation is home to more than 130,000 highly qualified gaming specialists.

It is responsible for 15.1% of gaming app downloads and 20% of all gaming users worldwide. But because of inexpensive internet, India has solidified its position as the world's largest mobile game market, with 8.45 billion downloads in FY25, according to the most recent report from Sensor Tower.

India is one of the biggest gaming markets, but it has poor revenue due to a number of structural problems of its own. These include insufficient cultural validation, a fragmented consumer base, minimal monetisation per user, and a lack of deep capital for gaming intellectual property.

For instance, in-app purchase (IAP) revenue in India is only a little over $400 million, which is low when compared to more developed economies, even though downloads are still high there.