With Phonato Studios, two Jamia graduates, Faisal Abidi and Raghib Khan, aim to establish India’s foothold in the global gaming industry.
Wilmington (DE) [USA], September 26: Phonato Studios, a mobile game development company, has surpassed over 10 million downloads of its gaming titles and achieved an exponential increase in market penetration, especially in the North American market.
Founded by two Jamia Millia Islamia graduates, Faisal Abidi and Raghib Khan, in 2013, the company has witnessed significant growth figures, a remarkable feat for a bootstrapped Indian company in an industry primarily ruled by American, Chinese, and European firms.
The primary factors that have contributed to the success of Phonato Studios are a great team, an intricate understanding of the current gaming market, and the decision of the founders to go the “bootstrap way” from day one while staying true to their vision of delivering the best possible gaming experience. Notably, Phonato Studios – remains entirely debt-free to date, and its game titles have received an average of 4.5+ star reviews on Google Play and the iOS App Store.
For both Faisal and Raghib, bootstrapping was a personal resolution. “Being self-funded allowed us a lot of creative freedom and gave our team the opportunity to tinker with ideas. While many investors would have been sceptical about going into games in the pre-pandemic times, we jumped into it head-on because we knew this was a growing market. Now, our offerings have received critical acclaim, and we are well on our way to expanding our product range,” said Raghib, the Co-Founder and Director of Phonato Studios.
His fellow Co-founder and Director, Faisal, who also heads the services division of their other business, RNF Technologies, added, “Calling the shots worked wonders for us! We could strategically time our growth as and when we felt the market was conducive for it. Being a self-funded company and not answerable to any investors gave us that leverage. It took a lot of patience, determination, and hard work, but as a team, we’ve been our bosses in the truest sense, and we have loved every moment of it.”
The duo stepped into the tech services world with RNF Technologies in 2009 after gaining valuable work experiences at AOL and Google. With a 250+ international client base using its web development and digital marketing services, RNF Technologies proved to be the perfect springboard for Phonato Studios as well as Resource, an IT staff augmentation firm that boasts of several Fortune 500 companies as its clients. Notably, RNF Technologies has been acclaimed as one of the “Top-Performing App Development Companies for 2021” by Clutch, a reputed market research firm in the USA.
In addition to these ventures, the friends-turned-business partners have interests in the B2B events arena. With excellence and innovation being on top of their agenda, they hope to continue cultivating Indian talent and truly “Make in India” to offer impressive services, products, and experiences to its clients across the globe.
Vijay Singh
