Octro: Revisiting Traditional Indian Games

Gaming company Octro is creating fun-filled experiences by reimagining games that have been passed down from generations and making them accessible on mobile.

Saurabh Aggarwal, founder and CEO of Octro, spoke to BW Businessworld on becoming the fastest-growing mobile gaming company in India, with its Teen Patti game topping charts on the Apple iOS, Google Play and Windows platforms.

Aggarwal says Octro is a new-age gaming company that has achieved success and its games have been top-grossing on key mobile platforms.

"With just four to five successful gaming companies in India, Octro is best placed among its competitors," he said.

The most popular game from Octro is Teen Patti, the traditional Indian game made digital. With a user-friendly interface, one can connect with friends and play online. Teen Patti is made available in four languages; Hindi, English, Gujarati and Marathi.

"Right now, we have Teen Patti, Indian Rummy and Carrom, Tambola and Poker in our portfolio. With maximum users from India, we focus on revisiting the traditional Indian games. We also introduced Poker, a very popular game outside India," Aggarwal said.

Octro started in 2006 as a communication company for smartphones.

"We focused on making voice for IP, video calling among other products. The idea of shifting into the gaming arena occurred to me about three years ago and ever since we haven’t looked back. Today, we have more than 25 lakh active users and we get over 15,000 downloads daily," Aggarwal said.

"All of our games available in the market are made in-house. We are also partnering with several Indian gaming companies and providing them our technology. We have a huge team of talented engineers and artists. The basic principal behind Octro is bringing the traditional Indian games online," he added.

Out of the top five games in India, three are developed by Octro, making the company a dominant player in the domestic market.

The company is now looking to foray into other genres of games like trivia and strategy, and hopes to expand outside India.