Nazara Technologies Ltd, a mobile gaming platform, has become the majority investor in fantasy sports startup HalaPlay Technologies Pvt. Ltd following its acquisition of early-stage fund Kae Capital’s stake in the company.
The transaction has taken place through an equity swap deal, with Nazara picking up Rs 14.6 crore (approximately $1.92 million at current exchange rates) in HalaPlay stock, Nazara said in a statement.
The Mumbai-based company is already an existing investor in HalaPlay. Its first capital commitment round took place in November 2017 along with Kae Capital itself; the second investment was conducted with casino gaming company Delta Corp Ltd in March last year.
However, it is not clear if Nazara has partially or fully acquired Kae Capital’s stake in HalaPlay.
VCCircle has reached out to Kae Capital on the details of the transaction and will update this report accordingly.
Bengaluru-based HalaPlay was set up in 2016 by Swapnil Saurav, Prateek Anand, Ananya Singhal and Aman Kesari, with the company beginning operations in January the next year. It is a mostly mobile-based fantasy sports platform, where players can create teams, enter competitions and win cash prizes.
It allows sports enthusiasts to play cash-based games, such as cricket, football, and kabaddi, across different formats.
Nazara Technologies was set up in 1999 by Nitish Mittersain. It has acquired several mobile gaming projects from emerging markets around the world, including in India, West Asia and Latin America. It has also invested in NZWorld Kenya Ltd to help set up real money gaming operations in Kenya. In May last year, the company invested in vernacular social contests platform Bakbuck.
Nazara had, in April 2018, received approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India to float an initial public offering. WestBridge was expected to sell four-fifths of its holding in the IPO, with its stake reducing to 3.48% after the IPO compared with its pre-IPO stake of 22.69%. However, Nazara has not yet gone public.
