Gaming Startup Winzo Earmarks $25 Mn To Dive Into Brazilian Market

At a time when the gaming industry in the country is reeling under the GST Council’s decision to levy 28% GST on real money gaming, WinZO is set to expand its presence by entering the Brazilian market.

The gaming startup plans to invest $25 Mn in the Brazilian gaming market, which will provide growth opportunities for the export of computing, technology, and consumer tech from India, WinZO cofounder Saumya Singh Rathore told Mint.

“The market is underserved with very few products catering to the Portuguese market. We are planning to solve for the underserved market, as we did here in India. During our beta stage, Ludo became very popular there and we are looking at introducing many more games in the market,” Rathore added.

The startup, which has partnered over 100 game developers and offers casual games such as carrom, chess, and car racing, among others, on its platform, will also allow its partners to offer games directly in the new market without any cost of technology, marketing, and distribution. 

Founded by Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh in 2018, WinZO partners third-party developers to host games on its mobile-based application. It offers games in 12 languages, including English, Hindi, Gujarati, and Marathi, and claims to have more than 100 Mn users. 

Earlier this year, WinZO launched a $50 Mn ‘Game Developer Fund’ to invest in global startups across all forms of interactive entertainment – game developers and publishers, economies around gaming, content creation, live-ops, and security.

The startup competes with the likes of Dream11, MPL, and Zupee. 

WinZO’s net loss surged 2.3X to INR 121 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) from INR 51 Cr in the previous fiscal year, while revenue from operations also jumped 2.3X to INR 234 Cr.

The latest development comes at a time when the Indian online gaming sector is crying havoc due to the new GST regime, which does not differentiate between games of skill and games of chance. 

The hike in the GST rate has also resulted in the likes of MPL, Spartan Poker and Hike laying off employees, while startups such as Quizzy, OWN, and Fantok have temporarily shut their operations. Last month, Bengaluru-based Gameskraft too pulled the plug on its fantasy offering, Gamezy Fantasy.

Meanwhile, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has sent show cause notices to gaming companies, including Dream11 and Play Games 24X7, for alleged tax evasions. Overall, gaming companies are said to receive tax notices totalling about INR 1 Lakh Cr.