- Nazara Technologies CEO says the games firm is sitting on $200 million in cash and could spend more if the opportunities arises
- Company plans to grow in India and on the global stage
- Nazara also aims to promote India’s wider games industry, having partnered for the first-ever India games pavilion at GDC 2024
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India is home to one of the world’s largest games markets. In 2023, it had more mobile game downloads than any other country at 9.3 billion installs – double that of Brazil, which ranked at number two with 4.6bn, according to AppMagic estimates.
It’s also home to a bustling games industry that, over the past couple of years in particular, has been working to get more global exposure for its developers and publishers.
Nazara Technologies – India’s first publicly-listed games company – is one firm keen to expand itself and others on the world stage. Its games include World Cricket Championship, Kiddopia, Animal Jam and Classic Rummy, while it also operates in the esports (Nodwin Gaming, Sportskeeda) and advertising (Datawrkz) sectors.
In October last year, it also launched a new publishing arm with the aim of releasing up to 20 games across platforms over the following 18 months. By December it had revealed deals with four developers.
M&A war chest
The company has aggressive M&A plans, having committed $100 million for investments and purchases over the next two years.
“But we can do more if the opportunity provides us,” Nazara CEO Nitish Mittersain tells PocketGamer.biz. Earlier this year he told us the company was sitting “on almost $200m of cash in total”, and has the capital and potential access to further resources.
The firm is looking for opportunities in games, esports and ad tech, with a focus on established IPs and studios. It’s also looking at new tech, including web3, virtual reality and artificial intelligence, casting a wide net on its ambitions. Its focus, however, is on the India and North America markets.
“We can do more if the opportunity provides us.”
Nitish Mittersain
Since announcing its war chest, Nazara has secured a string of deals. It has completed the acquisition of Kiddopia developer Paper Boat Apps, bought US games content platform Deltias Gaming, and purchased the remaining stake in marketing agency Freaks 4U.
That follows on from other deals it has made in the past, including acquiring a majority stake in Nodwin Gaming in 2018, and US developer WildWorks in 2022.
Local and global approach
Mittersain says Nazara has a global approach to its M&A strategy – it wants to expand the company on the global stage, while also investing in India’s games sector at the same time.
“The way we think about ourselves is in two parts,” he explains. “One is India being our core strategic market, where we want to keep investing for the long-term and doing everything that is strategically required to continue to be market leaders there and be valuable for partners from all over the world, as well as to Indian developers.”
He adds: “But what we found over the few years is that some of our core competencies, whether it’s user acquisition, whether it’s data analytics, are very helpful for studios all over the world.
“And by nature, by evolution, actually, 40% of our revenues evolved into being in the US, because we had some successes like Kiddopia, which is an app for young kids, but most of its business happens in the US.”
Asked why Nazara’s investment strategy in its announcement was so broad – covering everything from IPs and web3 to AI and VR, Mittersain says he didn’t want the company to be boxed in from potential opportunities that may arise.
However, he says the core focus right now is game studios that are profitable and have successful IP.
“Nazara being a $10bn company in the next five years is my ambition as an entrepreneur.”
Nitish Mittersain
Further pressed on whether $100m is enough for such a strategy, Mittersain says “I think it’s the start”.
“As the playbook pans out, I’d love to change the $100m to $1bn.” He adds: “Nazara being a $10bn company in the next five years is my ambition as an entrepreneur. But we have to make it happen.”
At the time of writing, Nazara Technologies currently has a market cap of approximately $800 million.
Promoting India’s industry
While Nazara is trying to grow its own business on the global stage, it is also promoting India’s wider games industry with it.
In partnership with WinZo Gaming and the India Game Developer Conference, Nazara put together the first-ever India Pavilion at GDC this year.
Not just a meeting point to promote the those companies and host meetings, they brought a number of other local developers to showcase their work. Nazara is also investing elsewhere to help grow India’s industry and talentbase.
“We are seeding the market, we are seeding Indian developers, we are spreading a lot of awareness,” says Mittersain. “We are trying to launch academies to upscale talent, because we think ‘make in India, for India’ and ‘make in India, for the world’ are two big opportunities.”
