Google Selects KSUM’s Koco Games for 2021 Accelerator Program

KOCHI:
Google has selected Koco Games for its distinguished ‘Indie Games Accelerator 2021’, thus qualifying the company supported by Kerala Startup Mission to compete at the annual global program.

Koco Games, which is a three-year-old Kochi-based independent game developer and publisher, is one of just two Indian startups selected for the accelerator program slated to be conducted across four months from October.

The participating team gets exclusive access to the Google team, its mentors and google products. The program begins with a demo day where the companies get the opportunity to muster funds by presenting themselves in front of investors.

Founded in 2018 by Mohammed Aboobacker, Ajmal Jamal and Kapil P, the core team of Koco Games has over eight years of experience in the game industry.

Aboobacker is San Francisco-based YCombinator alumnus, having participated in YCombinator 2017 batch that is considered as world’s best business incubator program. His first company was acqui-hired by Freshworks in 2015.

Expressing excitement over being selected from thousands of applications for the program, Aboobacker said his mobile gaming company’s business is heavily dependent on Google and its ecosystem. “Direct access to Google and its employees will ramp up our growth and unlock the next phase for the company,” he said, revealing that Koco Games with more than 10 million players has released five games. Its ‘War Troops 1917’ is among the top-rated games from India, with over 140,000 reviews.

Koco Games is fully bootstrapped with annual revenue closing to a million dollars. The startup is part of the Kerala government’s KSUM Incubation Programme and has an office in Kinfra HiTech Park at Kalamassery, 15 km north of Kochi.

With the support and mentorship coming directly from Google, the teams will get direct access to Google resources, top industry experts and learn how to build and grow a successful games company, Koco Games officials said.

KSUM is the state’s 2006-founded nodal agency for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities.