Matiks raises $10 million as its brain game app gains rapid momentum
Mobile gaming trends have shifted dramatically over the past decade. Competitive quiz apps once captured massive audiences, followed by the rise of battle royale hits that turned quick matches into global entertainment events. Now, as users grow tired of endless feeds filled with repetitive AI-generated content, one India-based gaming startup is betting that the next big mobile gaming wave could be smarter, faster, and more mentally rewarding.
Matiks, a mobile app focused on math games, logic puzzles, memory challenges, and brain-training duels, is gaining strong traction with players who want bite-sized entertainment that also feels productive. The app has been available for around two years, but 2024 has become its breakout year.
According to the company, Matiks’ daily active users jumped from 22,000 earlier this year to more than 300,000 by September. Its monthly active users reached 2.2 million in the same month, signaling growing demand for competitive brain games that are easy to play in short sessions but engaging enough to keep users coming back.
That growth has now brought in fresh funding. Matiks announced that it has raised $10 million in pre-Series A funding led by General Catalyst. The round also included participation from Indian entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, along with existing backers Info Edge Ventures, Tanglin Venture Partners, and Untitled Ventures. With this latest investment, the startup has raised more than $13.5 million so far.
Matiks was founded by college friends Sudhanshu Bhatia, Mohan Kumar, and Sushant Timmapur. Bhatia, who has experience in competitive mental math, began exploring the idea while working at American Express on anti-money laundering strategy.
The founding idea was simple: make mental challenges feel as exciting as mainstream mobile entertainment. Instead of presenting math and logic as dry exercises, Matiks turns them into head-to-head games, streak-based challenges, quests, and competitive duels.
Bhatia has said that modern entertainment platforms have made content incredibly easy to consume, but much of that content does little to engage the mind. Matiks was created to offer an alternative: fast, fun, competitive games that sharpen skills while still delivering the thrill of play.
Inside the app, users can choose from categories such as Math, Puzzle, Memory, and Logic. Players can practice against bots before competing with real users. The game also includes challenges, quests, points, streaks, and unlockable games, giving users multiple reasons to return daily.
The app’s appeal lies in its short-session design. Players can finish games in just a few minutes, making it suitable for commutes, breaks, or quick mental warm-ups during the day. Unlike some mobile games that aggressively push ads or in-app purchases, Matiks appears to be taking a more balanced approach as it grows.
Until recently, the company’s main focus was user growth rather than monetization. It has now started testing a subscription plan that unlocks extra features such as game analysis, tips and tricks, practice tools, and additional gameplay options. Matiks also offers in-game purchases that let users skip certain challenges, maintain streaks, or boost XP points.
India remains the company’s largest market, but Matiks is also seeing interest from players in the United States, South Korea, and Japan. The startup plans to introduce localization features to strengthen its presence in international markets, especially in South Korea and Japan, where puzzle and competitive mobile games have strong user bases.
While Matiks is positioning itself as an antidote to low-quality AI-generated content, the company is not ignoring artificial intelligence altogether. It has introduced an experimental game creation platform called Jelo, which allows users to create their own games and share them with others. This could turn Matiks from a brain game app into a broader platform for user-generated puzzle and logic games.
The game creation space is becoming increasingly competitive, with major technology companies also testing tools that let users build playable experiences more easily. For Matiks, the challenge will be to make creation simple, social, and fun while keeping the core experience focused on skill-based entertainment.
The startup currently has 41 full-time employees and plans to use its new funding to expand into new markets, scale its game creation platform, and continue improving the main app experience.
General Catalyst partner Rahul Humayan praised the startup’s vision, product quality, and community engagement. He described the company’s pace of development and strong user behavior as encouraging signs for future monetization. According to him, features such as duels, social play, short-form content, and user creation suggest that Matiks is building more than just another mobile game.
Matiks’ rise comes at a time when many users are searching for healthier and more engaging digital experiences. Instead of passive scrolling, the app offers quick competitive challenges that test speed, memory, logic, and mental calculation.
If the company can maintain its growth, improve monetization without disrupting the user experience, and successfully expand outside India, Matiks could become one of the most interesting names in the mobile brain game category. Its mix of competitive gameplay, mental fitness, and social challenges gives it a strong position in a market where players increasingly want entertainment that feels both fun and worthwhile.
