Founder Nitish Mittersain Takes Charge As Nazara’s CEO

Gaming startup Nazara Technologies’ founder Nitish Mittersain has taken up the CEO position of the company from today onwards. In a LinkedIn post he said that he will be taking the post of CEO in the startup from today (1st December) onwards. 

Sharing the development on Twitter, Mittersain tweeted, “I am back as Nazara CEO from today and look forward to making a strong impact filled with positive intent and hard work!”

The development comes nearly a month after Nazara’s former CEO Manish Agarwal quit the position to pursue his entrepreneurial journey. 

Despite parting ways with Nazara, Agarwal has been associated with the startup as a nominee on the boards of material subsidiaries. Besides, he also holds a 1.15% stake in the startup.

Set up in 2000 by Mittersain, the Mumbai-based startup offers varied gaming products such as esports and real money gaming, among others. It also manages some subsidiaries– NODWIN Gaming, Halaplay, Qunami, Sportskeeda and WildWorks, to name a few. 

Nazara is currently seeing a major rejig as this month, its subsidiary Sportskeeda’s CEO Porush Jain also stepped down. Following this, Ajay Pratap Singh was appointed as the new CEO of the sports media startup.

In the second quarter of the fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23), the startup posted a 13.7% YoY increase in its net profit at INR 17.4 Cr against INR 15.3 Cr profit gained in the same quarter last year (Q2 FY22).

Meanwhile, Nazara’s operating revenue stood at INR 263.8 Cr in Q2 FY23 as compared to INR 129.6 Cr in the corresponding quarter last year (Q2 FY22). 

In August, it acquired 100% stakes in the US-based gaming startup WildWorks in an all-cash deal. While in June, it announced that it would infuse INR 20.10 Cr in its subsidiary company Absolute Sports, which manages Sportskeeda.

In April, its subsidiary NODWIN Gaming bought a 35% stake in Brandscale Technologies’ gaming accessories brand for INR 10.01 Cr. During the same month, its Singapore-based subsidiary Nazara Pte. Ltd infused $2.5 Mn in the US-based gaming fund BITKRAFT Ventures. 

Prior to this, it earmarked $4 Mn to Web3-focussed venture capital fund Griffin Gaming Partners Fund II. 

In the financial year 2021-22 (FY22), Nazara’s profit after tax (PAT) climbed up by 273% YoY to INR 50.7 Cr. Meanwhile, its operating revenue grew by 37% YoY to INR 621.7 Cr in the same fiscal year.