Gaming and sports media company Nazara Technologies Ltd., last week filed its draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), after first receiving approval from the markets regulator to go public in 2018. Founded in 2000 by Nitish Mittersain, Nazara operates in e-sports gaming and content, mobile gaming, and has recently entered gamified learning and real-money gaming, including fantasy sports gaming. Its operations are spread across India, South Asia, North America, and Africa. Some of its brands in India are WCC and CarromClash in mobile games, sports content website SportsKeeda, and HalaPlay and Qunami in real money quiz and gaming. Revenues and primary areas of business According to regulatory filing, revenues mainly come from subscription fees from gamified early learning content, and from e-sports business, cumulatively accounting for 71% and 42% of operational revenue in FY20 and H1FY21. Business segment: Revenue and % of revenue in H1FY21 | FY20 Gamified early learning: ₹787 million, 39% | ₹191 million, 8% eSports: ₹637 million, 32% | ₹842 million, 34% Telecom subscriptions: ₹428 million, 21% | ₹818 million, 33% Freemium: ₹90 million, 4.5% | ₹198 million, 8% Real money gaming: ₹63 million, 3% | ₹426 million, 17% I. Gamified early learning: Nazara entered this segment with the acquisition of Paper Boat Apps Pvt. Ltd., which operates subscription app Kiddopia, in January 2020. Kiddopia caters to children aged between 2-6 years in North America. Paid subscribers increased to over 290,000 in October 2020 from around 115,00 when it acquired…
