Forget Netflix and chill. This 20 year-old founder wants you to play

India’s gaming industry has a lot of potential – the kind of potential that translates into “people are still trying to crack it.” This morning, though, one Delhi-based startup got a little bit closer.

Smartphone gaming social network Gamezop announced that it had raised US$350,000 in seed funding. The round was led by Indian entertainment and marketing firm Kwan. US-based Powerhouse Ventures, an existing investor in Gamezop, also participated in the round, along with Tracxn Labs, Germany-based AECAL, and angel investors, including Snapdeal’s product officer Anand Chandrasekaran, Redbus co-founder Phanindra Sama, and Vinay Menon.

The startup previously received angel funding in May 2015 as part of GSF’s mobile accelerator program in India. Its team is seven members strong.

Founded by brothers Yashash and Gaurav Agarwal in January 2015, Gamezop seeks to lessen the amount of data spent downloading apps by offering hundreds of games on one app. Its founders are true believers in HTML5, a type of game structure that works on both mobile and desktop. The startup offers both full-length games and demo games that prompt the user to download other games to access more levels.

Games on the app are curated for their short length and ability to keep users engaged, even first-time smartphone users. Gathering several games into one also lessens the amount of data used to download and play. The app is available for Android at the moment but can be shared as weblinks for play on iOS and other smartphones, tablets, PCs, and smart TV.

Yashash, Gamezop’s 20 year-old CEO and game developer at heart, has been working on games for two years now. He was invited to the Thiel Summit in Silicon Valley last year, and, as of a month ago, was still working through his last semester in university.

“Popular forms of digital entertainment, such as music or videos, already have platforms that serve as one-stop destinations. However, in gaming, one only hears of individual titles,” Yashash said in a statement. “We are building a platform to make gaming reach the inflection point that the others have already witnessed.”

See: One app, low data, hundreds of games. Meet the founder who wants India to play

Leveling up

Mobile gaming in the country is expected to hit US$571 million this year, which might not sound like a lot next to China’s US$5 billion, but there’s still money to be made. Yashash is looking to HTML5 to make the difference. After all, he points out, it’s popular in China.

“The Chinese market, at 15 times our size, is massive. Super casual HTML5 gaming within messenger apps has really picked up there,” he said in a statement. “We are already working on exciting distribution alliances and will build an open platform to piggyback on existing networks.”

If Yashash gets his way, global expansion is in the company’s future, as well as cleaning up HTML5 games so game builders can keep up with their other developing counterparts. He sets the bar high, but India’s gaming industry has plenty of room to blossom. We’ll see if Gamezop can keep up its growth spurt.