WinZO Partners With Kalaari Capital To Launch Its ‘Gaming Lab’, Will Co-Invest iIn Gaming

* WinZO, A Leading Social Gaming Platform Is Set To Launch Its ‘Gaming Lab’ With The Intent Of Encouraging Social Gaming Ecosystem In India and Globally

* WinZO has a strong user base of over 65 million premium quality users. 55% of WinZO’s user base prefers pay-to-play formats and spend over 60 minutes on the platform daily. 

* Kalaari is an early-stage, technology-focused venture capital firm based out of Bengaluru, India  

 India’s largest social gaming platform, WinZO is launching an investment initiative, ‘Gaming Lab’, jointly with Kalaari Capital, to encourage and support India’s gaming ecosystem. ‘Gaming Lab’ will invest across all forms of interactive entertainment apps in India with a flexible corpus starting at over half a million dollars. 

Association with WinZO, which hosts 80+ games in 12+ languages and has 80% users consuming the app in vernacular languages, will further help Gaming Studios and Gaming Companies to be culturally relevant for Bharat. WinZO will also mentor these gaming companies working towards revolutionising the gaming ecosystem by means of video streaming, game tech, innovations. The selected companies will receive support and drive effective monetization, growth and also benefit from the tech expertise that WinZO has to offer. 

The ‘Gaming Lab’ will be launched during GameCon 2021 (https://www.gamecon.in) - a conference which will witness participation of industry leaders in the gaming sector and discuss various facets associated with the future of India’s Gaming Ecosystem, trends in global and Indian gaming. The $200B+ global gaming market is ready for disruption from India. GameCon 2021 will be a platform where industry leaders will be discussing how various technologies such as Blockchain, AR/VR, NFTs can create new monetization models like play to win rewards. Ensure that we are bringing in relevant stakeholders to discuss current trends in global and Indian gaming. 

GameCon 2021 will also host India’s second community tournament by Axie Infinity, an NFT based online game. Axie Infinity is the highest revenue accruing game based on Ethereum with an expansive user base. GameCon 2021 will conduct panel discussions on emerging models in online gaming and the potential for the sector in India, host workshops on how to get started with gaming as a career in India & getting started with your Axie journey. The speakers include Vani Kola (MD, Kalaari Capital), Jeffery Zirlin (Co-founder, Sky Mavis - Axie Infinity), Harri Manninen (Founder, Play Ventures), Paavan Nanda (Co-founder of WinZO Games, Zostel & ZO Rooms), Dheeraj Shah (Host, Desi Crypto Show),  Michail Katkoff (CEO & Co-founder of Savage Game Studios) among others.  

Commenting on the new association, Saumya Singh Rathore, the co-founder of WinZO said, “We are looking to invest across all forms of interactive entertainment including but not limited to games and ancillary industries such as content creation, live-ops, security etc. We are placed in a strategically sound position owing to our understanding of tech, the real pulse of India that is at the centre of online gaming evolution that we as a nation are witnessing. These capabilities combined, we will be able to sufficiently provide requisite support in the form of capital, guidance and strategic help to further this socio-economically critical ecosystem. WinZO’s Center of Excellence will help drive growth, strategy and distribution for the selected applicant, while driving monetization in the world’s largest engagement powerhouse.” 

Towards its efforts of strengthening gaming development, WinZO recently had announced a $20 Million game developer fund III with the idea to holistically boosting the global game development ecosystem including game design, economies around gaming, content creation, live-ops, and security through Capital investment, infrastructural support and monetization support. 

About WinZO: 

WinZO is India’s largest vernacular social gaming platform which hosts 80+ Skill based games including Cricket, 8 ball Pool, Chess, Quizzes and Fantasy in 12+ vernacular Indian languages. Trusted by 65 million+ users across India, WinZO clocks 1 billion + microtransactions per month.   

Founded in 2018 by second time entrepreneurs, Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh Rathore, WinZO is a series C funded venture backed by global gaming and entertainment investment funds such as Griffin Gaming Partners, Maker’s Fund, Courtside Ventures, Pags Group and Kalaari having raised a total capital of $98 million. 

WinZO facilitates game developers to onboard their games on the WinZO app through its self-serve console (console.winzogames.com) and provides ready access to 65 million+ users and an opportunity to instantly monetize games. It uses cutting-edge world-class technology including Machine Learning, Big Data analytics to ensure Skill based matchmaking for users and weed out any manipulators and hackers providing the best gaming experience.