WinZO debuts $50 million fund to back gaming, interactive entertainment startups

WinZO enables developers to host their games on the platform and earn revenue through a microtransaction based monetisation model

Social gaming and interactive entertainment platform WinZO announced on March 20 a new $50-million game developer fund to back gaming startups, as the New Delhi-based startup looks to expand its user base and footprint across the world.

Of this, the company plans to invest at least $10 million in US-based interactive entertainment startups.

This is WinZO's fourth such fund in the past four years. WinZO announced a $1.5 million maiden fund in July 2019 followed by a $5 million fund in November 2020 and a $20 million fund in September 2021.

Its portfolio companies include game development studio Bombay Play, Web3 gaming firms IndiGG and Upskillz, UK-based gaming studio Village Studio and blockchain-based creator economy and streaming startup Glip.

With this new fund, WinZO stated that it plans to back startups across all forms of interactive entertainment including game developers and publishers in various genres including casual, action, sports and mid-core multiplayer games such as tennis and golf among others, economies around gaming, content creation, live-ops, and security.

It can commit a cheque size of up to $10 million in a startup, it said in a statement.

“Game development is often perceived as a hit-or-miss business. However, over the years we have been able to build a strong framework to identify winners. Given our platform play at WinZO where we have access to performance of over 100 games by more than 50 developers across diverse genres, we believe we are well poised to identify signs, mechanics and metrics of an early hit" said Paavan Nanda, co-founder, WinZO.

"In addition, being operators ourselves, we tend to create a melting pot for our portfolio companies for them to exchange ideas, do pilots or leverage WinZO’s community and resources," he said.

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Started by Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore in 2018, WinZO enables developers to host their games on the platform and earn revenue through a microtransaction-based monetisation model ranging from Rs 1- Rs 10, instead of the traditional in-app purchases and advertisement-based models. Nanda claims this model delivers a 10x revenue uptick than traditional app stores.

WinZO claims to have a portfolio of over 100 games spanning various genres, including strategy, sports, casual, card, arcade, racing, action and board games across 12 languages such as English, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali and Bhojpuri. It claims to facilitate over four billion micro-transactions per month on the platform.

For portfolio companies outside India, WinZO helps them expand and monetise in the country, the company said. The game studios get instant access to over 100 million WinZO users besides the startup's localisation and monetisation engine to launch in India. The company said that it has previously partnered with global gaming companies like Voodoo and Next Wave to launch their games in the country.

“In the past, global gaming companies have found it difficult to earn revenues in India. The monetisation issue faced by game developers and studios can be attributed to the replication of conventional game monetisation models in India despite the wide economic and cultural gaps," Nanda said.

WinZO counts US-based Griffin Gaming Partners, Maker’s Fund, Courtside, and Kalaari Capital among its investors. It has raised a total of $100 million across multiple financing rounds to date.

Among other startups that have launched similar funds include Dream11 parent Dream Sports that set up a $250 million fund in August 2021 and skill-based gaming company Games24x7 that announced a Rs 400 crore corporate venture fund in November 2022.

Krafton, the maker of popular games such as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) and its India version called Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), has also pumped in over $100 million in Indian startups since 2021.

Its investments include mobile game development studios Nautilus Mobile and Lila Games, game streaming platform Loco, esports firm Nodwin Gaming, Indian language storytelling platform Pratilipi, audio content platform Kuku FM, audio romance and friend discovery startup FRND and influencer marketing platform One Impression.

In June 2022, JetSynthesys's Jetapult had announced plans to invest up to $100 million to acquire gaming studios in India and other emerging markets on an invest-and-operate model over the next couple of years.