Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath invests Rs 100 crore in gaming company Nazara

Gaming and media firm Nazara Technologies on Monday said it is raising Rs 100 crore from Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath, to make a push into the Indian game publishing space.

The Mumbai-based company said it will issue shares to Kamath at Rs 714 apiece.

On July 10, Nazara’s board approved raising up to Rs 750 crore through issuance of equity shares.


“Gaming in India is poised for strong growth in the years to come and Nazara has built a well-diversified, profitable gaming platform well suited to take advantage of opportunities in the years ahead,” Kamath said in a statement.

Nazara will launch a publishing arm in India, chief executive Nitish Mittersain told ET in an interaction. “We see a huge opportunity in bringing global games and IPs to India and supporting them as a local publisher,” he said.


The company already publishes games like Animal Jam, Kiddopia, and World Cricket Championship, which contributed to a third of its revenues in FY23. Mittersain said they want this share to go up.

The development comes even as Singapore-based Garena’s Free Fire returned to the Indian market last week after more than a year-long government block. Last month, South Korea-based Krafton’s Battlegrounds Mobile India also completed a three-month trial period mandated by the government in May this year.

The initial acquisitions will focus on casual gaming even as Nazara may look to pick up stakes in Israeli, US and Nordic companies.

On August 16, the firm invested Rs 4.15 crore in Israel-based game developer Snax Games Ltd, and struck an agreement to secure exclusive publishing rights for games made by the firm. The agreement, based on a revenue share model, gives rights to Nazara for publishing the games in the Indian subcontinent and the Middle-East region for five years.

Mittersain added that the structure of the publishing arm and the timelines of the deals are yet to be decided.

On July 29, Nazara reported a 31% jump in profit after tax for the quarter ended June 30 at Rs 20.9 crore, while revenues for the first quarter of FY24 were at Rs 254.4 crore, jumping 14% from a year ago.

The company’s shares closed 9.9% higher on Monday at Rs 834.8 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).