Arushi AgarwalSingapore based Makers Fund and US-based Courtside Ventures led a Series B funding round where WinZO, a regional language online gaming start-up was able to raise $18 million. Ever since the pandemic, this has been the largest investment in an Indian gaming start-up. The 2 companies have invested in an Indian start-up for the first time ever.
Just last month, Gamezop was able to raise $4 million in series A funding from FJ Labs, Bitkraft, Velo Partners, and more. In another series A funding from Matrix Partners India, Falcon Edge Capital, Orios VP, and others in March, Zupee was able to raise $8 million.
Kalaari Capital had led a $5 million series A funding in WinZO in the year 2019. They were also involved in the series B round of funding.
Rahul Garg, Principal at Kalaari Capital had said, “Mobile gaming is a large opportunity in India, and in a short span of time, WinZO has built a high-quality vernacular gaming platform for the masses. We are very excited to partner with Makers and Courtside in the next leg of WinZO’s journey and bring superior entertainment to the next 200M gamers.”
WinZO was found by Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore in 2018. In the past year, it has observed a phenomenal revenue growth of 1500% and 20 million new users. The pandemic was a big help in increasing the user traffic by 30% and causing 3 fold increase in gameplays.
This platform is available in 12 languages and is host to about 70 multiplayer games from third-party developers. Due to the multiple languages option, the start-up was able to gain momentum in tier 2 and 3 cities as well. WinZO receives more than 1 billion micro-transactions every month.
The fresh round of funding received is expected to improve the content pipeline as well as increase engagement in gamers on smartphones.
Michael Cheung, Partner at Makers Fund said, “WinZO is at the heart of India’s gaming evolution, geography we’ve been tracking for some time. Paavan and Saumya’s success through a hyper-focus on their player ecosystem is evident, and a clear asset as they accelerate their growth.”