Eight years after he started a skill-based gaming startup from San Francisco for India, Junglee Games CEO Ankush Gera talks about how gaming in India has come of age and why he’s confident about 1000x growth for the industry. Vishal Krishna 1847 Stories Wednesday January 22, 2020 , 7 min Read Ankush Gera studied computer science and bioinformatics, but worked in a construction company during his university days. He attended college two days a week; the rest of his time was spent working. Perhaps that’s what led him to understand how to run a business at a very young age. Ankush started up in 2004, after completing his course at the San Jose State University in the Bay Area. He hasn’t looked back since then. His company, Junglee Games, which was his second startup, was founded in late 2012 and is a pioneer in the Indian gaming space. Boasting of 30 million users, it develops cutting-edge gaming technology and customised licensing solutions for desktop and mobile platforms, and its best-known games include Junglee Rummy, Eatme.io, Junglee Teen Patti, and Howzat. The startup raised $3.5 million in 2013, and has since then breached Rs 100 crore in revenue and the company claims to have achieved Rs 500 crore in turnover. Junglee Games is one of those companies that was “built in the US for India”. In an interview with YourStory, Ankush talks how he faced umpteen naysayers when he decided to build online games for the Indian market, the journey of his company, and what the future holds for the gaming sector.
