Inside Fahy Studios: A Saudi Game Studio’s Journey to Global Relevance — and What It Signals for the Attention Economy
Plus Real stories. Smart capital. The Pressplay way.
Hey founders, funds, & friends 👋,
A warm welcome to the 59th edition of the “Mehtta Ventures Dubai” investment digest newsletter, your weekly news digest about GAMES [Gaming, Ad Tech, Media Tech, Entertainment and Sports Tech] + AI startup and scaleup stories across the Middle East & India, digital / business trends shaping our lives and curated venture investment opportunities.
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What does it take for a young Saudi game studio to catch the eye of a global publisher like Kwalee? ✊
In this clip from the latest Pressplay podcast, Fahy Studios co‑founder Hani Hashem breaks down the courtship:
> Patience over pitches – three months of sharing prototypes and road‑mapping together before a deal was signed.
> Weekly co‑creation – FAHY and Kwalee now sit down every week to refine design, retention loops, and UA strategy on multiple titles.
> Regional leverage – beyond code and art, FAHY offered Kwalee a real entry point into Saudi’s fast‑growing games ecosystem—studios, talent, and government support that global publishers won’t find on Steam charts.
> Capital + collaboration – yes, Kwalee brings UA budgets and data rigs, but what matters most is the open‐door feedback that helps a studio iterate faster than its burn rate.
For founders across MENA and India asking, “Where’s my moat?” the answer might be less about a single hit game and more about the unique access, cultural insight, and local networks you can place on the table.
🔗 Watch the clip to hear Hani explain how aligning vision and market access turned FAHY’s partnership from a transaction into a true growth engine—then let me know which publisher–studio models you think will define the next wave of GAMES exits.
🎧 ▶️ We just went live with the full podcast here - Please subscribe and Share with folks who might find this interesting / building “gaming OR attention economy startups”!
Today’s program:
Gaming Gets Institutional Backing Across Asia — Investors Rally Behind New-Age Game Developers
Structured Capital, Disciplined Execution: How Pressplay Capital Plans to Deliver Top-Quartile Returns
Why This Works — Our Advantage in the Attention Economy
And….Action!
Gaming Gets Institutional Backing Across Asia — Investors Rally Behind New-Age Game Developers
Why This Matters for the Eyeball Economy Thesis
From Mumbai to Madurai, game development is gaining serious institutional support — reinforcing our belief at Pressplay Capital that the next wave of breakout companies in the attention economy will be built at the intersection of AI, streaming, gaming, and immersive media.
This week, KRAFTON India announced a major expansion of its Gaming Incubator (KIGI) — growing its new cohort from 4 to 6 studios and doubling down on early-stage mentorship, platform partnerships, and financial assistance.
Key Highlights from KIGI’s New Push:
Broader Studio Participation: The new cohort features six startups from across India’s emerging hubs — including Ginger Games (Delhi), Unwind Games (Hyderabad), and Advaita Interactive (Kolkata).
AI-Powered Innovation: One title in development is an AI-driven detective game out of Kolkata, highlighting how young studios are already baking generative capabilities into core gameplay loops.
Genre Expansion: The cohort includes casual mobile titles, but also a PC-first game, hinting at diversification beyond mobile-heavy portfolios.
Infra + Insights Partnerships: KRAFTON has partnered with AWS, AccelByte, App Magic, and GameRefinery — ensuring participating studios get backend scalability, competitive analytics, and UA mentorship.
Funding Support: Each studio will receive up to $150,000 in funding alongside 6–12 months of tailored mentoring.
Our Take
This move validates a growing trend we’re tracking across India and MENA — institutional players are not just investing in studios but are actively nurturing pipelines. Whether it’s NEOM’s LevelUp accelerator, Krafton’s incubator, or game-specific VC funds rising in SEA and the Gulf, the momentum is real.
For LPs evaluating Pressplay Capital, this is further confidence that:
There is structured capital flowing into the GAMES ecosystem.
AI adoption is becoming foundational in game design.
Local studios are scaling with global ambitions and support.
Structured Capital, Disciplined Execution: How Pressplay Capital Plans to Deliver Top-Quartile Returns
In an era where venture capital is rediscovering fundamentals, Pressplay Capital is building a fund strategy that’s both conservative and conviction-led. With a $10M fund size and $8M allocated for deployment, our capital model blends early diversification with strategic concentration — giving us the agility to place multiple bets and the depth to scale our winners.
How We Deploy
15 Seed Investments: ~$300K average check across our core focus areas (Gaming, Ad Tech, Media-Tech, Entertainment, and Sports-Tech).
Follow-Ons in Top Performers: ~$700K average in 5 breakout companies where traction meets transformative potential.
Clear Reserve Strategy: ~$3.5M earmarked for doubling down post early growth
Our model borrows from power-law principles — where 2–3 breakout wins drive the lion’s share of returns, and the rest of the portfolio is built for base hits, not binary outcomes.
Return Expectations — Built to Withstand the Market Cycles
Even with conservative assumptions, we’re projecting:
3x gross MOIC on $8M deployed
2x net returns to LPs (post fees & carry)
25–30% IRR, placing us in the top quartile for seed-stage funds
^ We are aiming for much higher returns however this is reasonable to put on paper*
This isn’t just modeling — it reflects realistic exit thresholds seen in our sectors, from AI-enabled media tech to social gaming platforms.
Why This Works — Our Advantage in the Attention Economy
What makes this playbook executable — not theoretical — is our edge:
Global Operator-Led Team: Decades of success across Brightcove, KIVI, Adsolut Media, and Mehtta Ventures.
Founder-First Access: Back-channel relationships and direct pipelines with high-quality GAMES startups across India and MENA.
Distribution Support Built-In: Our network spans streaming platforms, ad tech ecosystems, celebrity media, and go-to-market allies.
Disciplined Use of Capital: No spray and pray. Each dollar deployed is tied to a milestone, metric, or clear moat.
At Pressplay Capital, we’re not betting on hype. We’re backing high-agency founders building in high-consumption categories with clear exit paths — and doing so with discipline, clarity, and global market ambition.
📬 Subscribe to our newsletters for deep dives into the attention economy & media-tech:
Mehtta Ventures Dubai (Attention Economy) – Subscribe here
The Streaming Lab (Streaming Industry) – Subscribe here
+ 🎙️ Follow our Pressplay Podcast for conversations with leading entrepreneurs (and VCs coming up) in the space:
Watch on YouTube – Pressplay Capital
Fahy Studios x Pressplay — Building Saudi’s Next-Gen Gaming Studio
In this episode of the Pressplay Podcast, I sit down with Hani Hesham, co-founder of Fahy Studios, a Riyadh-based gaming startup with a bold mission: to build character-driven, culturally-rooted games for global audiences.
We cover:
The Founding Story: How Fahy Studios emerged from Saudi Arabia’s rapidly evolving creative economy, and why hybrid-casual is their genre of choice.
Designing for “Gaming on the Go”: What it means to build games for today’s mobile-first, attention-scarce players.
Smash & Dash: The inside story of one of their first titles — from concept to soft launch learnings.
Partnership with Kwalee: How Fahy cracked a global publishing partnership, what publishers really look for, and why Saudi’s gaming ecosystem became a strategic asset.
Game Development Funnel: From idea to LiveOps — Fahy’s playbook on testing, greenlighting, and scaling.
Monetization Philosophy: Fahy’s experiments with IAP vs. ads and why they’re leaning into data-led design.
Team & Culture: With a globally distributed team and roots in Riyadh, how do they maintain cohesion and creative velocity?
Saudi Advantage: What it means to be a founder in the Kingdom today, and how support systems like NEOM’s accelerator are shaping the next generation of gaming startups.
This is not just a founder story — it’s a blueprint for how regional studios can compete globally, blending culture, design, and publishing know-how.
> PressPlay is where the attention economy meets real builders.
> We’re excited for the future of media-tech and AI-driven streaming—and look forward to partnering with those who share our vision.
If you know of startup founders building in the “eyeball economy”, please go ahead and connect us. Let’s pay it forward together :-) 2025 it is!
Watch this space and subscribe / share with your friends.
While you wait for our next newsletter, I encourage you to check out our other newsletter / streaming consulting destination: The Streaming Lab where we cover streaming insights from MENA and India.
The “Mehtta Ventures Dubai investment digest” is a weekly newsletter exploring the trends that matter to startup founders and investment professionals in the Middle East & India. If you are not already a subscriber, sign up and join several others who receive it directly in their inbox every Monday.
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