Nazara Technologies Becomes First Indian Gaming Firm to File IPO

Nazara Technologies, a gaming firm backed by Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, became the first Indian gaming technology company to make a stock market entry. The Mumbai-headquartered startup filed initial public offering documents with India’s market regulator on Friday.

Founded by gamer Nitish Mittersain in 2000, Nazara is one of the largest interactive gaming and sports media companies in India. The company is known for its games on World Cricket Championship and Chhota Bheem and Motu Patlu series. Its subsidiary Nodwin Gaming hosts multiple gaming events across the country. It has operations in over 60 countries across emerging markets including India, Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia and Latin America. The company’s platform hosts several content categories comprising subscription business, Freemium business and Esports business. Thanks to global boom in smartphone gaming, Nazara has built a strong network of millions of subscribers in the last few years.

The company owns IPs, including WCC and CarromClash in mobile games, Kiddopia in gamified early learning, NODWIN and Sportskeeda in esports and esports media, and Halaplay and Qunami in skill-based, fantasy and trivia games.

Besides Jhujhunwala, Plutus Wealth Management, IIFL

Founded by gamer Nitish Mittersain in 2000, Nazara is one of the largest interactive gaming and sports media companies in India

Special Opportunities Fund, Turtle Entertainment are other key investors. Earlier this month, Plutus Wealth Management LLP and its associates acquired shares worth over Rs. 500 crore of the company from WestBridge.

The company had received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India for its initial public offering in 2018. According to the draft papers of listing, Nazara’s public issue will see sale of 5,543,052 equity shares. Nazara Technologies consolidated revenue for financial year 2019 stood at Rs. 183 crore. It generated Rs. 180 crore revenue for the year 2018.

Explaining the rationale behind the IPO, the company said, “The listing will also provide a public market for equity shares in India. ICICI Securities and Edelweiss Financial Services will manage the company’s IPO, according to draft papers.

India’s gaming sector had a market value of around Rs. 6,200 crore in 2019 and was likely to grow to more than Rs. 25,000 crore by 2024 while the number of people employed in the sector is expected to be more than 40,000, according to Statista. On the other hand, mobile gaming’s market value was expected to hit around Rs. 2965.4 crore market by 2022 while the number of mobile phone gamers in India was anticipated to be approximately 62.8 crores by 2020.