The South Korean video game holding company KRAFTON has invested ₹164 crores into the Indian gaming solutions company Nodwin Gaming. Krafton has picked up a minority stake in the company is best known for subsidiaries and games such as PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds (PUBG), TERA, Golf King, Castle Burn among others. Whereas Nodwin Gaming is an independent subsidiary of mobile gaming company Nazara Technologies.
The motive of the investment is to help accelerate NODWIN’s development in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Additional to this NODWIN will be supporting talent, strengthen gaming infrastructures and technology, and organise a multitude of tournament IPs at a national and international level.
STATEMENTS
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of Nodwin Gaming said in an interview “Esports will be a key pillar to the growth of sports entertainment in the future. It sits at a wonderful intersection of sports, entertainment and technology where nations such as India can pave the path. With Krafton coming on board, we have an endorsement from the mecca of gaming and esports — South Korea — on what we are building from India for the world based on our competence in mobile-first markets”.
“Krafton is excited to partner with Nodwin Gaming to help foster the promising esports ecosystem and engage with our fans and players in India, taking the momentum from this partnership, we will explore additional investment opportunities in the region to uphold our commitment and dedication to cultivating the local video game, esports, entertainment, and tech industries,” said Changhan Kim, chief executive of Krafton in a statement.
Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Technologies said, “Nazara has been an early and strong believer in the potential of esports to disrupt the sports entertainment market and we believe this partnership between Krafton and the Nazara group will accelerate the growth of esports and open doors for collaboration between Indian and Korean gaming companies in future.”
With this investment by KRATON, the South Korean holding company will gain one seat on its board. Although, all previous investors of the Indian firm will remain intact. This includes the likes of JetSynthesys Private Limited and Nazara Technologies Limited, with the latter maintaining its more than 50 per cent stake in NODWIN Gaming.
