Nazara, Nikhil Kamath’s WTFund Commit Investment In Two Gaming Startups

Gaming major Nazara Technologies and Zerodha cofounder Nikhil Kamath’s WTFund have jointly committed a total investment of INR 2 Cr in two gaming startups.

The investment in these gaming startups – Norian Games and Xigma Games –  is aimed at scaling up their businesses, the companies said in a joint statement.

“This fund is a small step in supporting companies that have made a mark with their innovative games, and I look forward to seeing them push boundaries even further,” Kamath said.

“It is great to join hands with visionary tech pioneers such as Nikhil Kamath to act on the vision of our Prime Minister in building strong gaming talent in India that can build games for the world,” said Nitish Mittersain, founder and CEO of Nazara.  

Founded in 2019 by Jake Koshy, Norian Games develops online games for PC and console such as “Aldian of Ancients”. 

On the other hand, Xigma Games was founded in 2015 by Himanshu Manwani and Govardhan Gosavi and has developed games like The Bonfire, Rubek, Super Nano Jumpers, and others.

Earlier this year, Kamath launched his newest grant initiative ‘WTFund’ for young entrepreneurs below the age of 25. 

The fund was launched to back up to 40 startup founders with a non-dilutive grant of INR 20 Lakh each with a total corpus size of around INR 8 Cr. Additionally, the WTFund will also offer mentorship, networking opportunities, and media training to the selected founders. 

“…the fund provides access to operator-first mentorship pods, a vibrant community through the WTF ecosystem, a Go-To-Market (GTM) studio, beta testing, and feedback opportunities, as well as talent acquisition channels through an internship program, a fractional CXO database, and moonlighting opportunities,” said company’s statement released in April.

Meanwhile, Nazara has partnered with ONDC Network to launch gCommerce, a platform that will integrate ecommerce within games. The in-game monetisation platform is aimed at offering game developers new revenue sources, Nazara said in a filing.