Figures and curves are suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic won’t be put to rest anytime soon. Social distancing has become the norm and almost everyone is either panicking or adapting in self isolation. From discovering new hobbies, working out, baking, to video-gaming, people are slowly getting acquainted to the new normal. With around 2.7 billion video-gamers worldwide, this industry is probably the only non-FMCG market that’s booming.

People are starting to look for better ways to connect with each other better than video chat at a massive scale a lot of people all around the world are discovering that playing games on Bunch is a great way to stay connected with each other. 

Selcuk Atli, CEO, Bunch

Bunch is a group video chat application that allows users to play multiplayer games with their friends. It’s just like being at a LAN party or a Nintendo round with friends on the same couch – but what’s different is that users have access to it anytime, anywhere, on their smartphones.

Due to the growing pain of social isolation; Bunch started seeing rapid adoption across many countries in the week of mid-March. On March 17th, Bunch was not listed on any category or country. A week later, Bunch broke into top 20 social apps in 17 countries, top 100 social apps in 35 countries and top 100 free app in the entire app store in 10 countries on the Apple App Store. While its usage was in the thousands in February, as of March 29th people open Bunch millions of times a month – and they spend over a million minutes a day with their friends on the app.

From Gamer to Founder

Before becoming a tech entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, Atli grew up as a huge gamer back home in Turkey. In fact, when he was twelve years old, Atli and his friend started the first online game magazine in Turkey, and the most successful at that time.

When launching Bunch in summer of 2017, Atli thought why can’t users host a LAN party on their phones, anytime, anywhere?

Because your smartphone is as powerful as your computer three years ago, unlimited data connection… technology is here, so you can do group video chat, very seamless, with your friends, anytime, anywhere. Really, all we needed was great multiplayer games you can play on your phone and people discovering they could do this.

Selcuk Atli, CEO, Bunch

Bunch is founded by Atli, Jason Liang and Jordan Howlett. With offices in New York and Toronto, Bunch is funded by Tencent, Supercell, Riot Games, Miniclip, London Venture Partners, Founders Fund and more. They raised 3.85 million in November 2019 – just in time for COVID-19.

A year ago, Bunch’s solution would have sounded niche and almost forced. Now, with coronavirus redefining how human beings socialize and the safety measures people around the world take, Bunch is becoming more and more relevant.