What happens when movies and gaming, the two great loves of Indians come together? Five techies got together to explore this and created Zooppy, which is India’s first movie fantasy gaming startup.
The Tech Panda spoke to Yuva Pushpakar, CEO of Zooppy, about their startup journey. He sees great potential for a platform like theirs in the Indian market.
Yuva Pushpakar
Today, online games are fast growing into a potential source of mainstream entertainment. 2021 might just be the year when games evolve into something more than a venue to pass time
“Today, online games are fast growing into a potential source of mainstream entertainment. 2021 might just be the year when games evolve into something more than a venue to pass time. It has the potential to become a medium that brings together a diverse set of people from around the world driven by their love for gaming and movies. Above all, India has the potential for becoming a gaming hub going into the future,” he says.
What They Do
The company aims to provide an engagement platform for movie lovers through technology, creativity, and innovation. They bring together the elements of fantasy gaming and movies to provide a unique experience packed with fun and excitement.
On Zooppy, users can play video league and game league with free 1,000 credits. In the video league, users need to pick eight videos from a list of videos within a limit of 1,000 credits. The audience can then predict the YouTube views of the highest priced video of the game.
Read more: {Startup Watch: Nerve Solutions} Boutique Fintech Regtech Consulting and Risk Management
There are eight questions with 15 seconds each, and the fastest fingers first earn a higher bonus for every correct answer. In addition, users can also win gadgets in the dream prize contests, which are held regularly. Zooppy is live on Apple and Android devices across India.
The platform gives the audience an opportunity to use their knowledge and skills in movies and win real cash over multiple formats. It also gives people a glimpse of the recent news and developments in the movie industry conjoined with a critical bird’s eye view of new releases in theatres and other OTT platforms.
Zooppy Origin
The journey of Zooppy began with five techies who were passionate to build a tech venture in combination with cinema. The creative minds behind Zooppy are Athul P. Raj (Alumni of GEC) Deepak P. Uthaman, Renjith K R, Mefin Davis, and Meljo Johnson.
In 2018, they founded and developed the parent firm, Quarous Technology Pvt. Ltd., where in the company received their initial seed funding from Davis and Johnson. Later, in 2020, Zooppy received a second round of investment from Pushpakar and Jose Thomas (CFO), who joined the venture. Today, they are proud to be a part of the Kerala Startup Mission, TBI and GEC.
The most interesting part of the game, reverse bidding, was invented by Pushpakar.
“I believed passion creates excitement and that led to this exciting and fresh idea,” he says.
Expansion Plans
Going ahead, they aim to expand Zooppy worldwide and become a key player in fantasy gaming platforms. On the movie side, they want to one day be a sponsor of The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), one of the most significant film festivals in Asia.
Currently, the platform doesn’t see any competitors, as they are India’s first fantasy gaming platform for movie lovers.
Pushpakar says their edge lies in being “a platform that brings together the elements of fantasy gaming and movies to provide a unique experience packed with fun and excitement.”
