Nazara’s Ex-CEO Launches New Startup Kratos Studios, Raises INR 160 Cr

Former Nazara Technology CEO Manish Agarwal and early-stage investor Ishank Gupta have launched a new Web3 gaming venture, Kratos Studios, and have raised INR 160 Cr at a valuation of INR 1,200 Cr in a seed funding round led by Accel, an early and growth-stage venture capital firm.

The round also saw participation from Prosus Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Nazara.

With the fresh funding, the startup wants to build distribution rails in emerging markets for global Web3 games.

Aiming to build a Web3 gaming Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO), Kratos Studios has acquired web3 gaming DAO IndiGG through a token swap. IndiGG is a blockchain-based gaming community, which is building distribution rails in emerging markets for global Web3 games.

While Kratos Studios is planning to launch its token in the next 12 months, existing INDI token holders will be provided with new tokens at the time of the Token Generation Event for the new token. Until then, the INDI token will continue to trade on existing exchanges.

Kratos Studios wanted to collaborate with IndiGG, as it had the backing of Polygon’s cofounder Sandeep Nailwal and Yield Guild Games’ cofounder Gabby Dizon, Agarwal told Inc42. Now, Kratos Studios will be the owner of all the intellectual properties of IndiGG.

Kratos Studios’ founders will continue to work closely with Nailwal and Dizon who incubated IndiGG for that.

According to Gupta, the IndiGG stack will partner with existing gaming micro-communities in South Asia, both on-ground and online, as sub-DAOs in the IndiGG ecosystem. These micro-communities will facilitate explosive community growth for global Web3 games, he added.

“We are providing the 500 Mn+ South Asian gamers with an opportunity to leverage their time and skill to become creators of digital goods on the blockchain for global games. This will enable South Asia to transform into a digital goods’ factory for the gaming world,” Agarwal said.

Manish Agarwal stepped down as the CEO of Nazara Technologies last year. At that time, Nazara hinted at Agarwal’s plans to pursue an entrepreneurial journey.

Last year, many Web3 startups such as Samudai, Zbyte, EPNS raised funding from prominent investors. India is home to over 450 Web3 startups that raised $1.3 Bn, about INR 10,700 Cr between 2020 and 2022, a joint report of industry body NASSCOM and venture capital fund Hashed Emergent said.

In November 2022, Indian Web3 startups formed a new lobby, Bharat Web3 Association, which comprised WazirX, Hike, CoinSwitch Kuber, CoinDCX, Coinbase and Polygon as its members.