AutoVRse Raises $2.4M from Singularity AMC, Lumikai to Scale Industrial AI Across Manufacturing, Pharma, Energy and Healthcare

• Fundraise co-led by Singularity AMC and existing investor Lumikai to accelerate AI transformation across manufacturing, pharma, energy and healthcare.
• Through its own proprietary platform, AutoVRse transforms complex industrial knowledge to power downstream AI applications, including VR training, digital twins, and agentic guidance for frontline workers. 
• The company serves 20+ Fortune 500 companies globally, derives roughly half of its business from outside India, and has hit $8M ARR within 12 months of global product roll-out and growing 250% YoY.

AutoVRse, India’s fastest-growing industrial AI transformation platform, today announced a $2.4 million funding round, co-led by Singularity AMC's Large Value Fund III and Early Opportunities Fund, and existing investor Lumikai, India's leading interactive media, digital platforms and games VC.

AutoVRse deploys VR-based training and smart glasses-enabled field guidance across manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, energy and healthcare. The company serves 500,000+ users at more than 50 enterprise customers across North America, Europe, the GCC and India, including Amazon, Shell, ADNOC, Exxon Mobil, Bosch, NTPC, HDFC Bank, UltraTech Cement, JSW Steel, Tata Power, Vedanta, Hindalco, Godrej, Torrent Power, Welspun, Intas and Abbott. The company has crossed $8M ARR within 12 months of global product roll-out, with roughly half of its business coming from outside India and revenue growing at 250% year-on-year.

At AutoVRse, we have spent a decade building training content for frontline workers. We've amassed the most accurate digital representation of how physical work gets done. The same way self-driving cars were first trained inside video games and 3D simulations before they hit the road, the AI that powers high-precision industries is being trained inside digital twins built on VRseBuilder. We're grateful to Singularity AMC for backing this vision, and to Lumikai, who've believed in this bet for years. – said Ashwin Jaishanker, Co-Founder and CEO, AutoVRse.

For decades, industrial companies have relied on a small number of highly experienced workers to operate critical equipment, troubleshoot complex problems and maintain safety standards. As workforces grow and experienced employees retire, much of that institutional knowledge risks being lost. AutoVRse has solved that exact problem – and this funding arrives at a moment of accelerating global demand for Physical AI, the application of artificial intelligence to the workflows of complex industries where accuracy, safety and real-time access to expertise are critical. Deloitte, the World Economic Forum and Constellation Research have each identified Physical AI as the defining enterprise AI shift of 2026, with manufacturing, logistics and healthcare leading adoption.

AutoVRse is creating real impact with AI on the factory floor and in pharma labs, and that is what the investment thesis is built on. The company operates at the intersection of AI and the global manufacturing revolution. We believe this is how the world will train and operate its industrial workforce over the next 10 years. AutoVRse sits at the edge of a massive, largely untapped market, and we believe the growth from here will be extraordinary, – Yash Kela, Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Singularity AMC.

AutoVRse’s proprietary platform, VRseBuilder, captures expert workflows and converts them into machine-readable operational data. By transforming institutional knowledge into a structured format, enterprises can power a wide range of downstream AI applications – from remote assistance and digital twins to VR training and real-time agentic guidance for frontline workers. Years of capturing high-risk industrial workflows across global enterprises have created an operational data layer that is difficult to replicate. The platform is already deployed at scale:

A global pharmaceutical leader has consolidated 72 different VR vendors onto the AutoVRse-built platform.

A global healthcare major now supports 5,000+ field service engineers with AI-assisted guidance via AutoVRse’s smart-glasses product.

JSW Steel began with a single conveyor-belt safety module, and has since expanded to dozens of additional modules at more than 50 plants - across their Paints, Cement, Mines and Energy verticals.

“AutoVRse has helped us build a more uniform, immersive and data-driven approach to workforce training at scale. Our data shows that workers who have completed VR training modules have not been involved in safety incidents for 12 months after, which is a significant outcome for our operations.” said K. Kiran Kumar, Group Head – Safety, JSW Group.

The capital will be deployed to accelerate product development across critical industries, deepen integrations with customer infrastructure, and scale go-to-market efforts across North America, where AutoVRse is already running deployments with several Fortune 500 customers, and sees its largest near-term growth opportunity. The company also plans to expand further in Europe, the GCC and India.

“We're thrilled to deepen our partnership with AutoVRse as they build out cutting-edge AI and VR infrastructure for Fortune 500 enterprises. With VRseBuilder, AutoVRse has demonstrated how immersion, participation and personalisation are finding consequential real-world applications across industrial training in warehouses, labs, plants and field operations of high-precision industries such as pharma, life sciences, manufacturing and petrochemicals, globally. We're excited to back Ashwin, Adarsh and the team as they make immersive AI the operating layer for global industry.” said Aditya Deshpande, Principal, Lumikai.




About AutoVRse

AutoVRse (TDW Technologies Pvt Ltd) delivers AI-powered training and real-time field guidance for high-precision industrial operations. Founded in 2016 by Ashwin Jaishanker and Adarsh Muthappa, and headquartered in Bangalore, the company captures verified operational knowledge from domain experts, structures it into machine-readable data, and deploys it through VR training, AI-powered smart glasses and mobile applications. AutoVRse serves a global enterprise customer base including multiple Fortune 500 companies and has trained over half a million workers worldwide. For more information, visit https://www.autovrse.com/

About Singularity AMC

Singularity AMC is a growth to late-stage focused private equity fund. The fund is led by some of India's most distinguished investment professionals, with over three decades of experience across sell-side and buy-side mandates in the Indian capital markets, and involvement with leading institutions including SIDBI's Fund of Funds for Start-ups, FICCI, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Plaksha University.

About Lumikai

Lumikai, combining the Latin word for 'light' with the Japanese word for 'tribe', is India's pioneering interactive media, digital platforms, and games VC. The fund backs early-stage founders building interactive media and digital platforms (streaming, social entertainment, audio, micro-dramas), driving innovation in games, developing cutting-edge technology (AR/VR, spatial computing, AI), and harnessing interactive mechanics to transform consumer experiences in education and skill development.

The firm has backed category-leading companies including EloElo and Story TV (India's #1 social entertainment and short drama platform), Supernova (Top 5 educational apps in India), AutoVRse (India's fastest-growing industrial AI transformation), Bombay Play (building casual games for the global market), among many others.

As a seed-stage investor, it also runs Lumikai Pixels, its pre-seed program for founders in their - 1 to 10 journey of building the next generation of interactive platforms. For more information, visit https://www.lumikai.com/

Studio Sirah Raises $2.6 Mn in Pre-Series A Round Led by Kalaari Capital and Lumikai

The studio will globally launch its flagship gaming title Kurukshetra: Ascension, and build out additional original IP based strategy and mid-core games leveraging Indian culture and lore

Studio Sirah, a next-gen game studio that builds unique Indian-themed games, announced today that it raised $2.6 million in a Pre-series A round led by Kalaari Capital (an early-stage, technology-focused VC firm), and its seed investor, Lumikai (India’s pioneering gaming, and interactive media focused VC fund). The company plans to utilise the funds to globally launch its flagship gaming title, Kurukshetra: Ascension, by June 2023. In addition, the funds will also help to build out their second title, which will go even further in terms of ambition and scope.

Kurukshetra: Ascension is a free-to-play card battler, themed on India's two great epics - the Mahabharata and the Ramayana. Players don the roles of ancient legends such as Arjuna and Sugriva, collect divine Astras and mythical creatures (from Apsaras to Daityas), and battle it out to the top in thrilling online duels. The studio is now adding in an expansive story mode (Ascension) - a grand tale of warring gods, conflicting philosophy, and the nature of Dharma itself, where player choices determine the fate of the universe.

Expressing his views on the fundraise, Abhaas Shah, Co-founder & CEO, Studio Sirah said, "Over the last year, we have worked hard to build a mid-core gaming studio from scratch, and launched a game which has both cultural resonance and global quality. The response has been amazing, both in India and abroad, and it is evident that there is a huge (and growing) market for uniquely Indian content. We are deeply grateful to Kalaari for joining us in this journey, and to Lumikai, for believing in our vision from the very beginning. Over the coming decades, we hope to not only entertain Indian gamers, but to take a slice of India to the world at large."

With over 120K organic downloads in beta, Kurukshetra-Ascension is available in early access on Play Store and Steam. A dedicated follower base on Instagram and a close-knit Discord community that has helped build and test the game from its MVP days reveals a growing appetite for India-based gaming content. Their current user base is deeply engaged, with a DAU/ MAU ratio exceeding 20% and average session times of over 25 min.

Commenting on the investment Vamshi Krishna Reddy, Partner at Kalaari Capital
said, “The Midcore genre like CCGs has done well globally, including China and Japan – but is severely under-penetrated in the Indian market. There is immense potential for more core IPs to come out of India. When we first met Abhaas and Prateek, we were in awe of the passion with which they were building Kurukshetra and saw a clear whitespace. With stellar artwork and innovative gameplay – Kurukshetra has already garnered a lot of appreciation from users and we are excited with what lies ahead."

Commenting on the investment Justin Shriram Keeling, Founding General Partner, Lumikai said, “We’re immensely proud of Abhaas and Prateek for building such a high quality midcore game studio over the last year. Kurukshetra Ascension has been lighting up the community and is widely anticipated ahead of its full release next quarter. Our recently published ‘India State of Gaming 2022 survey indicates that 80% of players have a strong tendency to play games with Indian IP., and we believe that games with culturally resonsant themes have the potential to significantly disrupt the Indian gaming market – especially in the midcore category. We’re excited to see Studio Sirah evolve to the next stage in their vision to create world-class IPs with culturally resonant content.”

Kurukshetra: Ascension is the first title from a team of two brothers, Abhaas Shah and Prateek Shah, avid gamers with strong technical backgrounds. They aim to build a new white space in the gaming industry with their rich Indian themed IPs that are gaining huge popularity across the globe. Prior to this, Studio Sirah had raised $830,000 in September, 2021 in its Seed round led by Lumikai and a pool of renowned angels such as Akshat Rathee (founder, Nodwin Games), Alexis Bonte (chief operating officer, Stillfront Games), Piyush Shah (cofounder, Inmobi), Roshni Rathi (partner, BCG), and Sameer Pitalwalla (Head Of Gaming, Google Cloud).

About Studio Sirah:

Studio Sirah builds mid-core games with a uniquely Indian flavour, for mobile and PC. Their games tap into India's rich lore, while making it accessible to a contemporary audience through stunning visuals and deep, engaging gameplay. The company aims to tap into the ever evolving Indian Gaming ecosystem with their rich Indian themed IPs. Studio Sirah envisions to be ‘India’s Biggest Global Entertainment Export.’
www.studiosirah.com

About Kalaari Capital:

Kalaari Capital is an early-stage, technology-focused venture capital firm based out of Bengaluru, India. Since 2006, Kalaari has empowered visionary entrepreneurs building unique solutions that reshape the way Indians live, work, consume and transact. The firm’s ethos is to partner early with founders and work with them to navigate the inevitable challenges of fostering ideas into successful businesses. At its core, Kalaari believes in building long-term relationships based on trust, transparency, authenticity, and respect.
www.kalaari.com

About Lumikai:

Lumikai is India’s first dedicated games and interactive media VC. The fund is building a next-generation tribe of India’s most forward-thinking, creative, and talented founders. The leadership team combines decades of strategic experience and sector knowledge while leveraging all-star local and global networks to help propel founders to success.

Lumikai has already backed some of India’s leading games companies including Bombay Play (building global hypersocial, cross-platform games), Loco (India’s leading game streaming platform), and Elo Elo (creator-led, social gaming, live streaming platform) amongst others. Lumikai is the lighthouse VC fund catalysing India’s “ripe for disruption” gaming & interactive media industries.
www.lumikai.com

Lumikai Fund and Fireside Ventures Lead Giga Fun Studios' $2.4 Mn Seed Round to Build Next-generation Casual Games for Indian Gamers

Giga Fun Studios Team — (L-R) Rahul Shekhar, Rahul Daga, and Krishnendu Mukherjee

Bengaluru-based casual gaming startup Giga Fun Studios today announced that they have raised $2.4 Mn in Seed round led by Lumikai, India’s pioneering Gaming & Interactive Media focused VC Fund and the consumer specialists Fireside Ventures. All In Capital, Kettleborough VC and Riverwalk Holdings also participated in this round.

The company will utilise the funds to create a new benchmark in casual games built to high quality for Indian and global audiences. The founders have extensive experience building leading casual games for India and the world previously at leading developers like Zynga and m56, and will be investing heavily on curating a stellar team as a hub for “best in India” casual game developers.

They aim to focus on designing games with geo accessibility across the full game stack, including simple but compelling game loops, customised UI/UX design for domestic gamers, accessible pricing, and distribution via third party app stores. Their longer-term goal is to export the richness of Indian culture globally through casual metas, creating the King of India.

The startup is founded by a trio of seasoned game designers and developers: Krishnendu Mukherjee (Former AVP and Head of Game Design at MPL, former Lead Product Manager at Zynga), Rahul Daga (Former Director of Products Zynga, Country Head at m56 Studios), and Rahul Shekhar (Former Engineering lead at m56 Studios). The founders have collectively shipped and operated 10+ games with experience managing gaming P&L’s of $100M+.

Expressing his views on the announcement, Krishnendu Mukherjee, Co-founder & CEO, at Giga Fun Studios said, “We have been brainstorming the idea of creating a Gaming studio that caters to the Indian audience and the core problem we mutually identified was that while current dominant casual games (such as Candy Crush) are very high in quality, they haven't been able to fully unlock an Indian player base due to a lack of cultural resonance. This is additionally visible in the lack of monetization participation of the Indian player. With over 5 Bn downloads, India is one of the largest download markets for casual games. Our belief is that with the right themes and geo-specific mechanics, we will be able to crack adoption and monetization for casual games in India.”

Commenting on the investment, Justin Shriram Keeling, Founding General Partner, Lumikai said, “According to our recently released India State of Gaming 2022 report, 80% of gamers show a high proclivity to play games based on Indian IP. We believe that culture-themed casual games have the potential to unlock massive disruption in the gaming space in India. We’re excited to be partnering with Giga Fun Studios at an early stage, and look forward to supporting them with our deep gaming expertise & network on their mission to build a match3 engine that'll allow them to build high-quality games, built specifically with geo-specific mechanics, localised game loops, unique distribution and India first monetisation."

Commenting on the investment, Shreyans Gangwal, Vice President, Fireside Ventures said, “We at Fireside Ventures are excited to announce our very first investment in the gaming sector and partnering with the gaming expertise Rahul S, Krishnendu & Rahul D and bringing our expertise of consumer brands & marketing to create a class-leading casual gaming platform from India. Globally, gaming has already eclipsed movies & music by ~3x and is one of the largest and fastest emerging sectors of digital consumption. This will serve the unmet needs of Indian consumers to drive a multi-billion dollar market opportunity over the next few years. High quality, deeply localized games built on proven game formats with the right in-app purchase driven monetization are likely to be the first beneficiaries in the wave of gaming which is expected to be a $8.5bn+ market opportunity in India“. 

About Giga Fun Studios:

Giga Fun Studios is India’s newest casual gaming studio. Casual games are one of the most popular game genres all over the world and in India. The studio aims to disrupt the category, by creating engaging, high quality games that are culturally relevant for the Indian player base. The goal of the studio is to develop world class games for Indian and global audiences. The founders bring 25+ years of combined experience in building and running games as well as building high performance game development teams.

About Lumikai:

Lumikai is India’s first dedicated games and interactive media VC. The fund is building a next-generation tribe of India’s most forward-thinking, creative, and talented founders. The leadership team combines decades of strategic experience and sector knowledge while leveraging all-star local and global networks to help propel founders to success.

Lumikai has already backed some of India’s leading games companies including Bombay Play (building global hypersocial, cross-platform games), Loco (India’s leading game streaming platform), and Elo Elo (creator-led, social gaming, live streaming platform) amongst others. Lumikai is the lighthouse VC fund catalysing India’s “ripe for disruption” gaming & interactive media industries.

www.lumikai.com

About Fireside Ventures:

Launched in 2017, Fireside Ventures with the close of its Fund III is currently managing INR 3,000 crore ($395 million) of AUM with investments across digital-first consumer brands in sectors such as health & wellness, food and beverages, beauty & personal care, nutraceuticals, lifestyle and home products, etc. The Fund invests in young start-ups and supports them through their evolution by providing expertise and access to their network.

Fireside Ventures is helmed by Kanwaljit Singh – Founder & Managing Partner, Vinay Singh - Partner, Kannan Sitaram - Partner, and Dipanjan Basu - Partner. The leadership team is also supported by an thirteen-member strong and multi-dimensional investment team.

Since its inception Fireside has invested in 30+ brands that include Supertails, NatHabit, The Baker’s Dozen, Smytten, Traya, The Sleep Company, 10Club, Wellbeing Nutrition, Pilgrim, Fitterfly, Slurrp Farm, FS Life (erstwhile FableStreet), SARVA Yoga, Gynoveda, boAt, Mamaearth, Vahdam Teas, Yoga Bar, Samosa Singh, SLAY Coffee, Design Café, The Ayurveda Experience, Kapiva Ayurveda, AnKaSumMor, Ninety One Cycles (erstwhile Frog Cycles), Bombay Shaving Company, Magic Crate, Pipa Bella, Azani, BluSpider (erstwhile Bog Orchid), Tasty Tales, and Kwik 24.