Asian Tech Press (Mar. 10) -- India-based gaming startup Loco has raised $42 million in a Series A funding round led by South Korea's early-stage venture fund Hashed.

Citing an announcement Thursday, Bloomberg reported that new investors including Makers Fund, outsourcing billionaire Narayana Murthy's Catamaran Ventures and Korea Investment Partners participated in the round, along with existing investors such as Krafton Inc., Lumikai Ltd. and Hiro Capital.

The capital infusion will bring the two-year-old startup's valuation to about $200 million, according to the report.

"India currently has 400 million gamers," said Anirudh Pandita, co-founder of Loco, in a Zoom interview, "Young Indians are spending a lot of time in the virtual world and gaming is breaking down the boundaries between urban and rural areas."

Pandita said Loco's daily user numbers have grown more than 15 times since January last year, and "live watch hours," the amount of time users spend on live-streamed games, has grown nearly 80 times.