Nazara Technologies eyes global expansion via M&A, pledges ₹830 crore

Homegrown gaming platform Nazara Technologies has pledged $100 million, approximately ₹830 crore, for mergers and acquisitions over the next two years to expand its global operations.

The company, in a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, said that the move will strengthen its global presence. Nazara Technologies is looking for investment opportunities within the gaming, esports and ad-tech segments with a focus on established gaming IPs/studios and companies engaged in advanced technologies like web3, Virtual Reality, and Artificial Intelligence.

The gaming platform recently raised ₹760 crore through the issue of preferential shares to investors including ICICI Prudential MF, Zerodha's Nikhil Kamath and Plutus Wealth Management. The proceeds from the investment will be used to fuel Nazara Technologies' expansion plans in the coming years.

Commenting on the development, Nazara Technologies' Joint MD and CEO, Nitish Mittersain, said that the company has witnessed significant success in its ‘acquire and scale’ strategy over the last few years as evidenced by the post-acquisition growth in platforms like Kiddopia, Nodwin Gaming and Sportskeeda.

"Our unique decentralised model allows these businesses to operate autonomously by strong management and provides us with significant bandwidth to scale the platform we have created. The $100 million pledge will further boost this opportunity for us in that direction. We are particularly focused on investing in and acquiring gaming studios globally with a specific focus on India’s 500 million gamers as well as the large North American market," Mittersain added.

Nazara Technologies is India's only publicly listed gaming and esports company. Its offerings in the interactive gaming segment include gamified early learning products like Kiddopia and Animal Jam which are among the market leaders in their respective fields. It also controls a digital ad tech platform Datawrkz, which supports its other portfolio companies and other external clients for various services.

Shares of Nazara Technologies closed at ₹637 apiece, down 5.28%, on NSE on Wednesday.