Nazara-Owned Fantasy Sports App HalaPlay Plans To Raise INR 18 Cr

SUMMARY

According to a filing, the company’s board of directors has given in-principle approval for HalaPlay, a Nazara subsidiary, to raise the funds from the identified investors

In a separate development, Nazara has bought a further 1.40% equity stake worth INR 96.16 lakh in its subsidiary Absolute Sports Private Limited (ASPL), which runs Sportskeeda.com

Following the transaction, Nazara’s stake in Sportskeeda has increased from 63.90% to 65.30%

Nazara Technologies-owned fantasy sports platform HalaPlay is planning to raise over INR 18 Cr, the publicly-listed company’s filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange showed.

According to the filing, the company’s board of directors has given in-principle approval for HalaPlay, a Nazara subsidiary, to raise the funds from the identified investors, names of which haven’t been revealed in the filing.

“Post completion of the said transaction, the stake of the Company (Nazara) in HalaPlay will be diluted from 74.02% to 64.70%, on a fully diluted basis. Further, there is no change in the management and control of HalaPlay upon completion of the aforesaid transaction,” read the filing.

Nazara didn’t respond to Inc42’s queries about the names of investors that are backing HalaPlay in its latest funding round.

Nazara Buys More Stake In Sportskeeda

In the same filing, it is revealed that Nazara has bought a further 1.40% equity stake worth INR 96.16 lakh in its subsidiary Absolute Sports Private Limited (ASPL), which runs the sports news website Sportskeeda.com. Following the transaction, Nazara’s stake in ASPL has increased from 63.90% to 65.30%.

Meanwhile, Nazara, a publicly-listed Indian gaming company, has registered 84% year-on-year (YoY) jump in consolidated revenue, which stood at INR 454.2 Cr for the fiscal year 2020-21 (FY21).

The gamified learning segment registered 820% growth in revenue, growing from INR 19.1 Cr in FY20 to INR 175.8 Cr in FY21. Similarly, revenue from esports more than doubled to INR 170.1 Cr in FY21, from INR 84.2 Cr in the previous fiscal.

Revenue from freemium, telco subscription and real money gaming stood at INR 19.5 Cr, INR 74.9 Cr and INR 13.9 Cr respectively in FY21.

Founded by Vikash Mittersain and Nitish Mittersain in 2000, Nazara is a diversified gaming and sports media platform with a presence in India and global markets such as Africa and North America. The company specialises in interactive gaming, e-sports and gamified early-learning ecosystem, and is well-known for its variety of products, including World Cricket Championship (WCC) and CarromClash (mobile games), Kiddopia (gamified early learning), Nodwin and Sportskeeda (e-sports and esports media, respectively) and Halaplay and Qunami (skill-based fantasy and trivia games).

Last month, the company’s initial public offering (IPO) received a strong response from institutional and retail investors.