Why a Carnegie Mellon grad just threw a Madzzle puzzle at Indian kids

What would be the best career option when you have studied computer science at IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) and possess a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University? Teach middle school kids without the help of textbooks, of course. Try that for four years and get inspired to reinvent Scrabble with Indian languages. A seamless transition, really.

Meet Manuj Dhariwal, Rajat Dhariwal, and Madhumita Haldar. They are the founders of MadRat Games, a Bangalore-based startup which has been creating Indian-themed board games since 2010. Their flagship product Aksharit, the world’s first board game in Hindi, is an Indian version of Scrabble and has reached 3,000 schools across India through state government partnerships.

Aksharit is now available in 11 major Indian languages and the digital versions have been launched in partnership with Nokia Oyj, Intel Corp. (AppUp store), and Google.

US$500,000 in funding from Blume Ventures and US-based First Light Ventures in 2012 helped MadRat venture into retail sales via distribution tie-ups with large stores like Shoppers Stop, Hamleys, and Future Group’s Central. Last month, the company received a US$1 million funding boost from IT outsourcing firm GlobalLogic and Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, founders of Flipkart.

Now with a capacity to produce three to four new games every month after streamlining the entire process from conceptualization, designing, manufacturing, and distribution of the games, MadRat aims to sell them through 50 stores and set up custom shelves that will showcase games exclusive to the company. It will also have its own experience store in Bangalore and use customer data from the retail stores for future marketing.

The company strives to build a culture of learning through games. “We have been doing intensive research on understanding the world of children today from the eyes of a mother,” said Rajat Dhariwal, at the launch of Madzzle, the latest board game from MadRat, on Friday in Bangalore.

Madzzle, with five themes, has been dubbed as the world’s first “roll-up puzzle.” The board game is equipped with a mat which allows the player to keep the jigsaw pieces intact and relocate the board to a different location. The games are priced between US$8 and US$16.

Around 70 board games, puzzles, and toys have been released so far and over 275,000 units have been sold in the past year. Autista, an app to help children with developmental delays due to autism, and MadRat Antakshari, a classic Indian song-cue game, are among the more popular ones.

The Indian toy industry is expected to grow to US $20 billion in 2015 and this is where MadRat is betting big.

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