The Southern Korean gaming firm, Krafton has invested in Esports firm, Nodwin Gaming. Rs. 164 crore was raised in equity investment and Krafton took a minority interest in the venture. Krafton is best known for games like Golf King, TERA, Castle Burn, PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds (PUBG) and many others. This is the third round of funding for Nodwin. Earlier, the firm raised funds from Nazara Technologies Limited, backed by Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and JetSynthesys Private Limited supported by Kris Gopalkrishnan, co-founder of Infosys Limited.
The organization aims to channelize these resources in order to accelerate sport development, promote talent, improve gaming infrastructure and technologies in South Asia, Middle East and Africa and to produce, organize and carry out numerous tournament IPs on domestic and global levels.
Over 50 percent of the company’s share is owned by Nazara Technologies, which invested in Nodwin Gaming in 2018.
The CEO of Nazara Technologies, Manish Agarwal said, “We agree that an alliance between Krafton and Nazara Group would stimulate the development of the world’s sports industry and open the doors to the cooperation between Indian and Korean gaming companies in the future.”
“Krafton is delighted to collaborate with Nodwin Gaming to promote the prosperous sports environment and to work with our Indian supporters and players”, said Changhan Kim, Krafton Chief Executive Officer. “In pursuing this relationship, our focus and commitment to local video play, sports, culture, and the technology sectors will be strengthened with new resources for investment in the city”, he added.
Nodwin Gaming, which was founded in 2014, is an independent subsidiary of Nazara Technologies. IPs, content and tournaments are developed by the company. Nodwin partners with global publishers and partners, some of which include Krafton, Tencent, ESL (formerly known as Electronics Sports League), Blizzard and Riot.
Indians have been exposed to many Esports experiences, such as the India Premiership and others, including the Dreamhack game festival, the ESL One world championship, and mobile sports from PUBG. The enterprise has content agreements with platforms such as MTV, Disney+ Hotstar, YouTube and Airtel.
