Corporate Crossings | Gaming firm Zupee ropes in Meta's Ashwani Rana as chief public policy officer

Representative image.

Skill-based mobile gaming platform Zupee has appointed Ashwani Rana, Meta’s director of public policy, as its chief public policy officer, the company said on July 14.

Rana, who served as the public policy director of Meta (formerly Facebook) for more than six years before working with Bharti Airtel in various capacities for more than 11 years, has around three decades of senior leadership experience, the company said in a statement.

"We are delighted to have Ashwani on board. With an extensive experience of navigating a variety of regulatory challenges, he will be instrumental in steering Zupee through the evolving online gaming regulatory landscape" the gaming startup founder Dilsher Singh Malhi said.

The appointment comes at a time when skill-based real money gaming companies, which account for a significant chunk of the industry's revenues, are in the crosshairs of several state governments, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala and Karnataka, who have banned or tried to ban them for allegedly promoting gambling.

These companies are now seeking a light-touch central self-regulatory mechanism for online gaming platforms as reported by Moneycontrol.

Founded by Malhi and Siddhant Saurabh in 2018, Zupee offers a range of skill-based casual games such as Ludo, Snakes and Ladders and carrom on its mobile app that lets users play and earn money. It claims to have more than 70 million downloads.

The company closed a $102-million Series B funding round in January 2022 at a valuation of $600 million. It has raised a total of over $121 million to date and counts WestCap Group, Tomales Bay Capital, Nepean Capital, AJ Capital, Matrix Partners India and Orios Venture Partners among its investors.

It also announced a partnership with Reliance Industries’ Jio Platforms in January to distribute its mobile games to all Jio phone customers.

"This is an exciting time to be part of the online gaming industry that will have a transformational effect on the digital economy of India. I look forward to play an active role in the growth of Zupee and work with the government and other stakeholders towards enabling policies for this sector" Rana said.

Disclaimer: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.