Nazara CEO Manish Agarwal Steps Down; Nitish Mittersain To Takeover

Gaming startup Nazara Technologies’ on Thursday (October 20)  said that its CEO Manish Agarwal will be stepping down from his position on December 1 this year.

Nazara’s founder and joint managing director Nitish Mittersain will take up the role as the new CEO of the company as per the recommendation of the company’s board of directors.

The company cited Agarwal’s plans to pursue an entrepreneurial journey as the reason behind his resignation.

Commenting on Agarwal’s resignation, Mittersain said, “Manish & I have worked closely together over the last 7 years to build a strong foundation on which Nazara will continue to grow rapidly in the years to come.”

After leading other gaming companies like Zapak and Reliance Games, Agarwal joined Nazara in 2015. Under his leadership, the company forayed into different segments and also went deeper in several segments with acquisitions. Nazara also went for public listing in 2021 under Agarwal’s leadership.

In a statement, Nazara said that Agarwal will continue to be associated with the company as a nominee on the boards of material subsidiaries of Nazara. 

Agarwal held 1.15% stake in the company as of June 2022.

Nazara has also appointed Sudhir Kamath as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO) effective from today.

Founded in 2000 by Mittersain, Nazara offers diversified gaming products in categories like esports, gamified early learning, real money gaming, among others. Some of its subsidiaries include esports company NODWIN Gaming, sports news website Sportskeeda, and children-focused gaming firm WildWorks.

Besides the management changes, Nazara also reported its Q2 FY23 results on Thursday. Its net profit rose 13.7% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 17.4 Cr, while operating revenue more than doubled to INR 263.8 Cr in the quarter.

“Our approach to capture opportunities across business segments has continued to deliver high revenue growth in successive quarters,” Mittersain said on the results. “We have many growth opportunities ahead of us and will continue to make investments to accelerate revenues and achieve market leadership in each segment we operate in.” 

Nazara also revised upwards its guidance for FY23. The company expects to see a consolidated revenue growth in the range of 70%-75% on a YoY basis with an EBITDA margin above 10% in the current fiscal year.