Flipkart upgrades its “game” by acquiring gaming startup Mech Mocha

Flipkart announced it has acquired IP from Mech Mocha. Mech Mocha is a mobile gaming startup that runs India’s first live social gaming platform ‘Hello Play’. In addition to IP acquisition, Mech Mocha’s team will also join Flipkart. The team will focus on developing new and innovative formats to engage with users on its platform.

Social gaming is growing extensively since the past few years. Even more, it has grown multi-folds during the ongoing pandemic. The lockdown due to COVID has forced people to stay indoors. Hence, they look for engaging and fun ways to connect with friends and family. Social gaming is catering to this need of theirs. Amid this rise, Flipkart gets a grand opportunity to upgrade its gaming strategy. Thus, it is pivoting away from solely being an ecommerce giant. Mech Mocha's gaming platform is unique. It captures the growth of social gaming. The platform today is in seven Indian local languages and has over 10+ games including popular Indian multiplayer games such as Ludo, Carrom, Snakes & Ladder and Cricket.

Co-founded by Arpita Kapoor and Mohit Rangaraju, Mech Mocha has been backed by top tier investors. This includes Accel Partners, Blume Ventures and Shunwei Capital. The gaming company’s team joins Flipkart. Thereby, they will focus on scaling Flipkart’s gaming efforts under the leadership of Prakash Sikaria, Vice-President at Flipkart.

From company leaders

Arpita Kapoor, Co-Founder & CEO, Mech Mocha, said, “With Vocal for Local being the focus for digital apps across the nation, this strategic backing of Flipkart provides us with an opportunity to be part of a larger ecosystem that helps us create unique social gaming experiences for Indian users. We look forward to being a part of the Flipkart ecosystem; leveraging the Flipkart Cloud Platform, Super Coins, Reward store and Flipkart Ads platform to strengthen the platform for our users.”

Prakash Sikaria, Vice-President, Flipkart, said, “At Flipkart, we are focused on providing consumers with an opportunity to access great products and content while giving them an engaging experience. We see many first-time e-commerce users come online through formats such as video and games, as they build familiarity with the medium. Our observations of Flipkart GameZone, reflect this trend as we see a strong correlation between casual gamers becoming early shoppers on Flipkart for their digital journey. Through this transaction, we will strengthen our capabilities in the gaming domain with access to Mech Mocha's IP, games and talented team that will help us accelerate our efforts in this space.”