Ash Habib

Ash Habib is a British-Pakistani entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Steel City Interactive, the Sheffield-based games studio behind Undisputed — the first major boxing game to reach mainstream audiences in more than a decade. Raised in Sheffield alongside brothers Asif and Asad, he spent two decades in the IT sector at companies including Fujitsu and Computacenter before making one of the most unlikely pivots in British games industry history: founding a AAA-ambition boxing studio with no prior games development experience whatsoever.

The idea behind Steel City Interactive was deceptively simple — boxing, one of the world's most popular sports, had been without a serious dedicated video game since EA's Fight Night Champion in 2011. In 2020, Ash gathered his brothers and set about filling that gap. The studio built its own proprietary technology, signed licensing deals with some of the sport's biggest names and governing bodies, and shipped Undisputed into early access in 2023. The game surpassed one million units sold, earned the backing of London Venture Partners and Novator Partners, and placed Ash on the list of the 50 most influential people in boxing. The studio has grown to more than 70 employees in Sheffield.

Steel City Interactive raised £15 million in 2024 from London Venture Partners, Novator Partners, and a group of angel investors to fund the next generation of its boxing franchise. Ash has spoken at GDC, partnered with organisations including the British Boxing Board of Control, and earned recognition as a new kind of founder: one who broke into an industry from the outside through passion, determination, and a willingness to bet on an underserved market.