[Funding alert] Nazara Technologies acquires 67 pc stake in Sportskeeda for Rs 44 Cr

Mumbai-based gaming platform Nazara Technologies has invested Rs 44 crore for a 67 percent stake in Sportskeeda, a sports media platform. 

With this investment, Nazara claims it adds 25 million monthly active users and closes in on 100 million monthly active users on its network.

Nitish Mittersain, Founder and Managing Director of Nazara Technologies Ltd., said,

“We at Nazara are building platforms for fan engagement across all aspects of sports entertainment, and we believe that this move will serve a triple play offering to the 100-million strong network through content, competition, and community across all emerging markets.” 

ALSO READ

How Nazara’s success has become a game-changer for the gaming sector

Founded in 2009 by Srinivas Cuddapah and Porush Jain, Sportskeeda was formerly backed by Seedfund, an early-stage venture capital firm, with an investment amount of approximately Rs 6 crore in 2012. It is a sports news and content website with articles, opinion pieces, and forums for fans to interact with each other.

Today, Sportskeeda curates over 10,000 articles per month, crowd sourced from a network of journalists, and serves personalised content to over 25 million+ monthly active users globally. The startup covers mainstream sports like football, cricket, esports, basketball, kabaddi, WWE, MMA, and more.

Sportskeeda CEO Porush Jain, said, 

“Nazara’s acquisition and investment into Sportskeeda is an important milestone in our journey. From our modest beginning as a multisport blog in 2009, we have become a one-of-a-kind sports content platform. We have our eyes set on becoming the world’s largest multi-sport platform by leveraging Nazara’s geographical reach in the sports-crazy Middle East and Africa markets.”

Nazara Games has been an active investor in the Indian gaming and sports media space in the last 18 months. It has built a network of companies in the interactive gaming and sports space through its investments and acquisitions in various gaming categories, including e-sports, fantasy sports, mobile cricket games and real money gaming among others. 

Its other recent investments include startups like Halaplay, Qunami, and BakBuck. 

Nazara also has a majority stake in Nodwin Gaming Pvt Ltd and Next Wave Multimedia Private Limited. It previously invested in CrimzonCode and NZWorld (NZWorld Kenya Limited), and in mobile gaming companies like Mastermind Sports Limited and Moonglabs Technologies.

Founded in 2000 by Nitish Mittersain, Nazara is currently present across 61 countries, and is engaged in acquisition and distribution of games from markets like Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa, apart from India.

ALSO READ

Nazara Technologies, Delta Corp invest Rs 40 cr in sports platform HalaPlay