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India's gaming market crossed $14 billion this year - and it happened right after the real money gaming ban wiped out $2 billion of it overnight. Salone Sehgal, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Lumikai, has been building India's first dedicated gaming and interactive media VC fund since 2020, and every investor she pitched back then said the same thing: Indians will never pay for digital content.
After twelve years in Europe and $10 billion in M&A deals at Morgan Stanley, Salone built a London gaming studio, and wound it down so cleanly that her own seed investors hired her. She returned to India in 2019 and launched Lumikai, now managing over $100 million anchored by Krafton, Mixi and Sega Sammy.
Speaking with host Akshay Datt, she breaks down why weak monetisation in India reflected an inability to spend rather than an unwillingness, why Lumikai held zero real money gaming exposure years before the ban hit, and why 85% of her portfolio already earns revenue at seed. With the microdrama market in India crossing $300 million in year one and projected toward $4.5 billion by 2030, the timing behind this conversation is sharp.
What we cover:
👉Why Lumikai kept zero real money gaming exposure years before the RMG ban, on the reasoning that regulation was a question of when, not if
👉How gaming accounts for just 8% of India's top 25 app downloads but nearly 40% of top-grossing revenue, and why gamers spend 4.5x more than non-gamers
👉Why India's microdrama market crossed $300 million in its first year, and what's driving the platforms like Story TV behind it
👉The DOSE framework: why a product triggering two of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins is good, and all four is exceptional
👉Why the founder's picture of the Indian user - a 22-year-old man in Bangalore - is usually wrong, and how Zoop found 1,000 women sellers on Facebook Marketplace instead
👉The 5C founder framework Lumikai uses to evaluate character, competence, clarity, commitment and curiosity, and why seed cheques are sized for 24 months and three shots at product-market fit
👉What Salone learned shutting down TrulySocial, placing every employee before the runway ran out
00:00 - Inside India's First Gaming VC Fund
02:33 - Raising $40M For A Gaming Fund
11:17 - Is India's $14 Billion Gaming Market Small?
23:34 - Microdramas: The Format India Imported
32:57 - The DOSE Framework For Product Retention
36:31 - The Indian User Founders Always Miss
44:37 - Do Indians Pay For Gaming?
47:13 - Why Lumikai Avoided Real Money Gaming
1:00:43 - Her Startup Ran Out Of Runway
1:15:33 - How Lumikai Picks Founders To Fund
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Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the speaker, not necessarily the channel
