MxMIndia

Tag: Nazara Technologies

  • To boost its trajectory

    Nazara Technologies raises funds

    Nazara Technologies Limited, the diversified gaming and sports media company, announced its largest fund raise to boost its growth trajectory. The company’s board has approved a preferential equity issue to raise INR 900 crores, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. This capital infusion will, as per a communique, fuel strategic acquisitions, fund business expansion, and enhance the company’s ability to seize new growth opportunities.

    Said Nitish Mittersain, CEO & Jt MD of Nazara Technologies Limited: “Nazara has demonstrated its ability to attract top-tier investors who believe in our long-term vision of establishing India’s first globally respected gaming powerhouse. This INR 900 crores fundraise will be instrumental in accelerating our growth across key segments. Additionally, increasing our stake to 91% in Absolute Sports (Sportskeeda) reinforces our leadership in the sports media landscape. The growth of Absolute Sports, from its early days as a startup to becoming a global media player, underscores our commitment to supporting innovative teams that consistently deliver transformational growth.”

  • In partnership with nCore

    Nazara to publish FAU-G Domination mobile game

    Nazara Publishing, the publishing arm of gaming company Nazara Technologies, along with nCore Games has entered a publishing partnership for FAU-G Domination. This is the latest game from the FAU-G franchise, the previous version of which garnered up to 50 million downloads.

    Said Nitish Mittersain, Joint MD and CEO of Nazara Technologies: “Made in India games have a huge potential to address the growing needs of the Indian gamer with locally relevant content and we are excited to partner with nCore to bring FAU-G: Domination to all our players.”

    Added Vishal Gondal, Co-Founder of nCore Games: “In recent times, the Indian government has called upon its citizens to support homegrown apps through the ‘Make in India’ initiative. FAU-G: Domination is our humble response to PM Modi’s ‘Make-in-India’ call, and we’re thankful that Nazara shares our vision to bring the best of India to the world. This signals India’s arrival as a major player in the global gaming industry.”

    Said Deepak Ail, Co-Founder & CEO of Dot9 Games: “We’re grateful that India’s biggest gaming company is supporting us to bring FAU-G: Domination to the world. Gaming is for everyone, and FAU-G: Domination is our effort in making that a reality.”

  • SGA aims to integrate its public relations, investor relations, and social media communications

    SGA wins Nazara Technologies mandate

    By Our Staff

     

    SGA Growth Advisors (SGA), has won the public relations and social media, mandate for Nazara Technologies  gaming and sports media platforms. Through strategic communications and ideation, SGA aims to integrate its public relations, investor relations, and social media communications.

     

    Commenting on this collaboration, Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Technologies said: “We have an existing relationship with SGA for our investor relations and annual report consulting. The teams at SGA work very closely with us to translate our thoughts into building narratives. They also are young and agile, similar to our thought process and add new insights and perspective to the strategy. We have extended our partnership with SGA for PR and Social Media with an aim to have a common communication strategy across spectrums. Looking forward to working with the team.”

     

    Added Kevin Shah, Founder of Strategic Growth Advisors (SGA): “We are delighted to have Nazara Technologies on board for PR & Social Media. It is a testimony to our vision of offering complete communications’ solution to a company under one umbrella. Nazara Technologies, is a young unicorn and it is exciting to work in the new emerging spaces of technology and gaming. We believe, going forward having a single partner integrated throughout all aspects of communications will be an efficient solution for companies. We are committed to offer the best in quality services across practices.”

     

  • To acquire a 55% stake in programmatic advertising and monetization company

    Nazara acquires stake in Datawrkz

    By Our Staff

     

    Nazara Technologies Limited has announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire a 55% stake in programmatic advertising and monetisation company Datawrkz valuing the company up to INR 225 Cr (approx. USD 30M) linked to CY 22 EBITDA performance.

     

    Nazara will acquire a 33% stake (INR 60 crore payable of which INR 35 crore is partly payable in cash and the balance consideration of INR 25 crore will be paid either in cash or swap of shares) in the first tranche by April 2022. Nazara reserves an option to acquire an additional 22% in the second tranche that is expected to close in Q4 FY23.

     

    Said Nazara Technologies CEO Manish Agarwal: “We, at Nazara, are looking to build strong gaming ad tech offerings globally with the partnership with Datawrkz. We strongly believe that growth of gaming focused ad tech will be exponential in the coming decade across geographies with the growth of gamers and game publishers across freemium, web3.0 and skill based real money gaming.”

     

    Added Nitish Mittersain, Founder & Joint MD of Nazara Technologies: “As always, it’s a great moment for us to welcome a new friend to our ‘Friends of Nazara’ network and I believe Senthil and the entire Datawrkz team will add great value to what we are building at Nazara over the next few years.”

     

    Said Datawrkz founder Senthil Govindan: “We had started this company with a vision to disrupt the digital advertising space. Datawrkz was already on a fast track to achieve our objective with rapid growth and satisfied clients around the world. Through our partnership with Nazara, I see our pace accelerating further. While Datawrkz will be able to immediately bring our natural strengths to bear within the existing Nazara fold, this also gives both sides a tremendous opportunity to build global advertising and publisher monetisation products with a sharp focus on the gaming vertical.”

     

  • The company reports 1.3 crore users

    As Covid-19 halts live action, Sportskeeda evolves with Esports

    By A Correspondent

     

    Sportskeeda, a subsidiary of Nazara Technologies has reported 1.3 crore users within two months. The company witnessed a 70% drop in revenue when all mainstream sports were suspended with the nationwide lockdown announced in March. Sportskeeda, notes a communique, was quick to convert the Covid-19 adversity into an opportunity by focusing on Esports without breaking away from the core. “With a 2000% hike today, the company has now emerged as the biggest Esports news destination in the country,” it claims.

     

    Porush Jain

    Said Porush Jain, Founder, and CEO, Sportskeeda: “Quick thinking and apt decision-making enabled us to harness the Esports growth opportunity successfully. Our strategic approach, innovation, and precision mingled with team-spirit is what truly fast-tracked the growth.”

     

    Given Sportskeeda’s success in the Esports vertical, Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies added: “The young team of Sportskeeda has always kept their users in mind while designing strategies which leads to their success time and again. Nazara has always had a predominant space in Esports with subsidiaries like Nodwin. With Sportskeeda entering the Esports news space we have not only widened our horizon but also established synergy within the subsidiaries.”

     

     

  • Now 100 million active users on Nazara’s network

    Nazara Technologies acquires majority stake in Sportskeeda

    By A Correspondent

     

    Nazara Technologies has acquired a 67 per cent stake in Sportskeeda, a sports media platform. With this investment, Nazara adds 25 million monthly active users and closes in on 100 million monthly active users on its network.

     

    Said Sportskeeda CEO Porush Jain: “Nazara’s acquisition and investment into Sportskeeda is an important milestone in our journey. From our modest beginning as a multi-sport blog in 2009, we have become a one of a kind sports content platform. We have our eyes set on becoming the world’s largest multi-sport platform by leveraging Nazara’s geographical reach in the sports-crazy Middle East & Africa markets.”

     

    Added Nitish Mittersain, Founder and Managing Director of Nazara Technologies: “We at Nazara are building platforms for fan engagement across all aspects of sports entertainment and we believe that this move will serve a triple play offering to the 100 million strong network through content, competition and community across all emerging markets”.

     

     

  • HalaPlay is a leading fantasy sports platform in India

    Nazara & Delta Corp invest INR 40 crores in HalaPlay

    By A Correspondent

     

    Gaming company Nazara Technologies and Delta Corp, a casino gaming company, have invested Rs 40 crore as part of Series-A funding round in HalaPlay, an online daily fantasy sports platform.

     

    Said Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Technologies: “Nazara invested in HalaPlay in 2017 and we continue to be excited about the growth story of HalaPlay. We are confident that Halaplay with this fresh round of funds will ride the explosive growth of fantasy sports in India.”

     

     

  • Nazara, with its majority investment in Nodwin, is furthering its commitment of developing the esports ecosystem

    Nazara acquires majority stake in Nodwin

    By A Correspondent

     

    Nazara Technologies, which announced its foray into esports last year, has acquired a majority stake of 55 per cent in Nodwin Gaming.

     

    Said Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies: “Through this acquisition we aim to provide Indian esports enthusiasts a robust player and community orientated esports ecosystem, in which players can thrive, improve their skills and become top competitors at an international level.

     

    Added Nodwin Gaming CMD Akshat Rathee: “Esports is one of the fastest growing sports worldwide. This acquisition by Nazara Games adds to the credibility of Nodwin and opens up a wide vista of opportunities for Indian esports players to build careers domestically and Internationally. It strengthens our ability to provide our key stakeholders better experiences and bigger opportunities to engage with our community”

     

     

  • Nazara Technologies is a leading mobile games company which is engaged in the acquisition of, value addition to and distribution of mobile games across emerging markets

    Rakesh Jhunjhunwala acquires minority stake in Nazara

     

     

    WestBridge Capital-backed Nazara Technologies announced that Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has acquired a minority stake in Nazara for approximately Rs 180 crore.

     

    Commenting on the recent investment made by Rakesh Juhunjhunwala, Nitish Mittersain, Managing Director & Founder, Nazara Technologies says, “We are delighted to have Rakesh Jhunjhunwala as an investor in Nazara and it is a great validation of value augmentation delivered by Nazara for its existing shareholders.”

     

    Added Sandeep Singhal MD & Co founder West Bridge Capital: “WestBridge has had a fantastic journey with Nazara and Nitish for 14 years and we welcome Rakesh Jhunjhunwala as an investor to join us on Nazara’s future journey.”

     

    Said Jhunjhunwala: “I am always on the lookout for promising companies which are leaders in high growth verticals. Nazara is a leading company in the mobile games business. Nazara has a consistent track record of delivering profits, cash flows, along with efficient use of capital and high ROE. I see a growth potential in the company.”

     

     

  • Manish Agarwal will be CEO while Nitish Mittersain will be MD at Nazara Technologies

    Nazara nets Manish Agarwal as CEO, eyes being largest smartphone publisher

    By A Correspondent

     

    Leading mobile game developer and publisher Nazara Technologies has announced the appointment of Manish Agarwal as Chief Executive Officer. Nitish Mittersain, who founded Nazara Technologies, will assume the role of the Managing Director.

     

    Formerly CEO of Reliance Games, Agarwal brings with over 16 years of rich experience in digital, consumer marketing and mobile gamingHe was instrumental for development of successful, multi-million download games including Real Steel franchise, Pacific Rim and Hunger Games Panem Run among others. He has held senior leadership positons at Unilever, Microsoft, Rediff, Infosys and UTV.

     

    Said Mittersain: “As an industry as well as a company, we are at an inflection point today. While on the demand-side, the adoption of smartphones and enhanced connectivity is helping the segment grow at an unprecedented pace, on the supply-side there is tremendous interest in the Indian market from global players, new entrants, content developers and investors. To remain competitive in this market, we need to scale up our operations and increase the management bandwidth, and this is where Manish will play a role. We are certain that his experience of running a large mobile gaming business, expertise of developing world-class games and passion for the mobile game developer ecosystem will help in taking Nazara to new heights.”

     

    Speaking about his appointment, Agarwal, said, “Nazara has been a pioneer in the Indian mobile gaming space. With an in-depth understanding of the gaming ecosystem and a highly talented team, the company is well poised to shift gears and enter a phase of faster growth. I am glad to be a part of Nazara, and together with Nitish will help steer the company and set it on course to becoming a world class mobile gaming company. ”