Former Unacademy CMO Karan Shroff Launches Gaming Studio ‘LightFury Games’

Over a year after leaving edtech giant Unacademy’s C-suite, Karan Shroff has entered the gaming space with the launch of his new venture LightFury Games. 

The former chief marketing officer (CMO) and partner of edtech unicorn Unacademy took to LinkedIn to announce the launch of his new gaming studio. “I am thrilled to announce my next venture LightFury Games, we will be building high quality cutting edge AAA game titles out of India,” Shroff said. 

For his new gaming adventure, Shroff has joined hands with gaming industry veteran Anurag Banerjee, who will serve as the company’s co-founder and CPTO, and former senior VP- talent and culture of Unacademy Tina Balachandran.  

With over two decade long career in game development, Banerjee has built multiple big-ticket AAA game titles, including Assasin’s Creed, Suicide Squad and Batman’s Arkhams Asylum among others. He had worked with Ubisoft, Rocksteady Studios and Improbable among other prominent gaming studios.

“Our mission is to develop AAA titles from India, and we’re already making waves in the industry with our innovative approach. At LightFury Games, we’re passionate about pushing boundaries and showcasing India’s immense talent on the global stage,” Banerjee said in a LinkedIn post.

Shroff told Inc42 that the startup will reveal mobile phone games initially and gradually seep into other gaming platforms like consoles. The company is also expected to announce funding shortly.

He has over 15 years of experience in event management and brand marketing. Before helming the marketing function for Unacademy between 2019 and 2023, Shroff was head of brand marketing for Xiaomi India for 4 years. 

According to his LinkedIn profile, he was on a career break between May 2023 and April 2024. During this time, Shah floated LightFury Games in January 2024, assuming the role of CEO and founder. 

As of now, the company’s website just says “Coming Soon.” LightFury’s LinkedIn profile describes it to be “Building AAA games out of India.”

It is pertinent to note that AAA games are classified as games with higher budgets produced and distributed by large gaming publishers. Some examples of these games are Red Dead Redemption, The Last of Us, Uncharted and God Of War among others. However, no prominent AAA games have originated from India till now. 

The dearth of good AAA games in India is in contrast to the country’s expanding gaming scene. The sector has produced unicorns like Dream11, Games24X7 and MPL over the last few years. The country is yet to see a homegrown AAA game. 

Addressing this last year, Nazara Technologies CEO and joint MD Nitish Mittersain said during Inc42’s The Makers Summit, “I know many studios that are attempting in AAA and that could potentially be successful. So I think we are seeing a transition here. And I think in the next decade you will see many more Indian gaming studios develop and succeed for the world and start becoming a lot more visible in global gaming charts, which has not been there in the past.”

Getting onboard the AAA train, mobile game development arm of gaming unicorn Mobile Premier League (MPL), Mayhem Studios, recently announced a beta launch of its first AAA title Underworld Gang Wars (UGW). 

Meanwhile, the size of the gaming market in India continues to grow. There are more than 500 Mn gamers currently active in India. gaming-focussed VC firm Lumikai projects gaming revenue for FY28 to $7.5 Bn.