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Tag: Nitish Mittersain

  • 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 gamified edtech venture is now reported to be witnessing an annualised run rate of Rs 175 crore

    Nazara completes majority stake acquisition in Kiddopia

    By A Correspondent

     

    Nazara Technologies Limited, a leading gaming and sports media company, has completed its majority stake acquisition of 51% in Paper Boat Apps by issuing Nazara shares worth Rs 43 crore as part of its final tranche of the transaction. Paper Boat Apps are developers of the popular ‘Made in India’ app Kiddopia catering to young children in the age bracket of two to seven years in age.

     

    This is Nazara’s second transaction in the year 2020 after undertaking a majority stake-holding in fantasy platform, Halaplay Technologies last month. This transaction is part of the Rs 83 crore stake deal  to acquire majority in Paper Boat Apps valuing the company in excess of Rs 150 cr.

     

    Since the initial funding, Kiddopia has seen over 300% growth in revenues and is now witnessing an annualised revenue run rate of over Rs 175 crore.

     

    Said Nitish Mittersain, Founder and MD, Nazara Technologies Ltd: “Gamified edtech is the only way to deliver high quality learning to young kids on digital devices. Kiddopia is a perfect example of this overlap between gaming and learning and their popularity amongst parents and kids speaks for itself. Nazara is very happy to add Kiddopia to our portfolio catering to over 100 million monthly active users on our network.”

     

     

  • 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”.

     

     

  • 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. ”