Digital gaming firm Nazara Technologies, which raised $108 million in September to support its merger and acquisition strategy, said Monday it has invested Rs 196 crore ($23.1 million) in five companies.
The Mumbai-listed company has agreed to acquire a 60% stake in indoor play centre operator Funky Monkeys Play Centers for Rs 43.7 crore ($5.2 million) in cash, expanding into physical entertainment space.
Funky Monkeys, founded by Binita Putcha and Sanjay Ghadiali, offers interactive play experiences for children across 11 centres in India. After the completion of the deal, it will operate as a subsidiary of Nazara.
“The synergies between the (Nazara) online gaming portfolio and Funky Monkeys’ offline play centres will enable the company to offer a holistic entertainment experience to our young audience,” Nazara said in an exchange filing.
Nazara aims to create an “integrated ecosystem” spanning digital and physical gaming experiences, it said in the filing.
Interestingly, in August, Nazara also won the bid to acquire domestic gaming arcade operator Smaaash Entertainment, which is undergoing an insolvency process, as it bets big on the offline space. At the time, founder and chief executive Nitish Mittersain told VCCircle that the Smaaash acquisition was only the first step in the offline space.
“Nazaara is going into offline entertainment in a big way. You can expect us to do more acquisitions in this space,” he had said. “The reason is we see a lot of synergies between what we do online and offline, for example in e-sports, virtual reality.”
Further, the gaming company bought a 4.7% stake in AI-based educational platform Learntube.ai for Rs 4.7 crore. The company provides interactive and gamified learning experience for professional skilling and caters to over 2 million learners.
Nazara also increased its stake in three of its subsidiaries. It is infusing Rs 148 crore ($17.5 million) in Sportskeeda, Nodwin Gaming, and Datawrkz.
It will invest Rs 64 crore in Nodwin Gaming by subscribing to optionally convertible preference shares. It already owns more than 50% stake in the entity.
It said the capital will be used to bolster Nodwin’s expansion momentum, focusing on enhancing its capabilities, growing its portfolio of intellectual properties (IPs), and strengthening its presence in emerging markets.
Nodwin has been on an acquisition spree in the recent past, buying Comic Con in India, German esports and gaming marketing agency Freaks 4U Gaming, West Asia and Turkey-focused marketing agency Publishme, Singapore-based live events firm Branded, and Turkish esports, gaming company Ninja Global, and Trinity Gaming, a gaming agency.
Nazara is also investing Rs 69 crore in Sportskeeda’s parent Absolute Sports, to buy shares arising from the exercise of employee stock options from the Sportskeeda management, thus taking its stake to 100% in the company.
Further, it is investing Rs 15 crore in its digital advertising arm Datawrkz. It previously acquired a 33% stake in Datawrkz in 2022.