Truecaller backs Mobile Premier League’s Mayhem Studios

Caller identification app Truecaller is investing roughly $2.86 million (SEK 30 million) in Mayhem Studios, the gaming studio owned by esports and skill gaming app Mobile Premier League (MPL), the company said on April 11.

As part of the transaction, Truecaller will acquire over 4 percent of the shares in the Singapore-based game development company Mayhem Studios Private Ltd. The investment is financed through existing cash.

Other investors include Sequoia and Mobile Premier League, the company said. MPL declined to comment on this matter. “Mayhem Studios is well positioned to take market share in the fast-growing Indian market for mobile games. We also see that the collaboration with Mayhem Studios will give us valuable insights into how we can create added value for our advertising partners,” said Nami Zarringhalam, co-founder and chief strategy officer at Truecaller.

“Our ambition is that this should contribute to us being able to build a stronger position for Truecaller’s advertising platform within the mobile gaming market,” Zarringhalam said.

The Bengaluru-based startup launched a gaming studio called Mayhem Studios in May 2022 to develop ‘AAA mobile games’ for domestic and global markets. AAA Games are typically video game titles that have big budgets for both development and marketing purposes.

Mayhem Studio will operate as a subsidiary of MPL and will comprise a team of professionals in the area of animation, art, cinematics, design, engineering, UI and UX game design, and game production.

At launch, the startup had said that Mayhem Studios will work on multiple esports and other game titles.

The studio is currently building its first gaming title called Underworld Gang Wars. The battle royale game will be set in India and revolves around the rivalry between two gangs, the company said. It claimed that the locations, the gangs and the icons represent an Indian context in a AAA game for the first time.

In March 2023, Bandai Namco Entertainment, the Japanese gaming giant behind titles such as Pac-Man, Tekken and Elden Ring, had backed Pune-based rival game development studio SuperGaming that is building a made-in-India battle royale game called Indus, which is expected to debut on PC, mobile, and consoles later this year. Moneycontrol