South Korean gaming developer Krafton is going to invest $150 million in the India. The investment will be completed over the next 2–3 years. Notably, the investment is as per Krafton’s commitment towards the Indian government following the unban of BGMI (Battlegrounds Mobile India), its most popular esports title in the country.
The company recently invested in NODWIN gaming back in May, participating along with Nazara Tech, JetSynthesys and others. This allowed NODWIN to raise $28 million in equity investment. The company has also invested in other startups including Loco, Pratilipi, Kuku FM, along with game studios Nautilus Mobile and Lila Games.
The company came forward to disclose its intentions to invest in the Indian online gaming space. It stated various reasons as to why it would favour the industry. The company’s official statement as quoted by TechCrunch said,
“We continue to hold a long-term view on India and its vibrant startup ecosystem, and we understand perfectly well that there are a number of reasons that can impact a company’s performance, including market conditions and consumer sentiment, among others, and we at Krafton will continue to support them.”
The investment of $150 million is divided into three parts where the investments will be split equally between the existing companies eyeing future growth, new tech companies providing various services to customers, and lastly, new startups in gaming and entertainment scene.
Krafton itself is committed to provide high quality games to the players in India. In the same vein, the team has recently expanded its portfolio of games with Road to Valor: Empires and Defense Derby. Both the games came as a surprise as they are widely different from the genre the company is known for.
Indian gaming market becoming favourite for global investors
Recently, another Japanese social networking giant Mixi has also committed $50 million to invest in various early-stage Indian startups. Mixi provides a variety or a mix of all socials media platform and even have a huge library of casual games for players.
India is already among the fastest growing online gaming industry across the globe. Several research agencies have highly rated the scope of the industry, and estimated high targets for the companies. Even after an increase in GST for online real money games at 28%, other sections like esports, AAA casual games remains open to be explored.