Online gaming platform WinZO has raised $18 million (approximately ₹132 crores) in Series B funding round led by Singapore based Makers Fund and US based Courtside Ventures, making it the single largest investment into an Indian gaming startup since the covid-19 outbreak.
In March, Zupee had raised $8 million in series A Investments from Falcon Edge Capital, Orios VP, Matrix Partners India and others. Last month, Gamezop received $4 million in series A funding from Bitkraft, Velo Partners, FJ Labs and others.
Kalaari Capital, which led a $5 million series A funding in WinZO in 2019 was involved in the series B round.
“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,” Rahul Garg, Principal at Kalaari Capital said in a statement.
Founded by Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore in 2018, WinZO is one of the fastest growing gaming platforms with revenue growing at 1500% and 20 million new user additions in the last 12 months. After lockdown, WinZO saw a 30% jump in traffic and 3 fol increase in game plays.
The platform hosts multiplayer games from third party developers and is available in 12 languages. The local language support has helped the platform grow quickly in tier 2 and 3 cities.
With the new round of funding, WinZo plans to improve its content pipeline and engage mobile first gamers.
“WinZO is at the heart of India’s gaming evolution, a 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,” Michael Cheung, Partner at Makers Fund said in a statement.
This is the first ever investment by the two venture capital funds in an Indian firm.
