Krafton invests $5.4 mn in India’s sports game studio

Krafton Inc. said it invested $5.4 million in India’s mobile game development studio Nautilus Mobile as the South Korean producer of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) aims for the online sector of the world’s second-most populous country.

Nautilus Mobile, the producer of Real Cricket, is currently ranked top among global simulation-based cricket gaming franchises with more than 100 million downloads and a community of 10 million monthly active users.

The game publisher founded in 2013 was acquired by an Indian digital entertainment technology company JetSynthesys in October 2020, which announced a plan to start the cricket e-sports business.

“Nautilus Mobile is a game developer that successfully established cricket games and secured a community with a high level of participation,” said Sean Hyunil Sohn, head of Krafton’s India unit. “We will provide differentiated sports game experiences for Indian users.”

KRAFTON TO INVEST INDIAN GAME MARKET FURTHER

Nautilus Mobile plans to expand its game portfolio with Krafton’s investment.

“With this partnership, we aim to scale Nautilus Mobile’s already robust gaming portfolio bolstering their growth trajectory further,” said Nautilus Mobile Chairman Rajan Navani.

This was Krafton’s first investment in a game development studio based in India. The South Korean game publisher has been investing in the country with a population of 1.4 billion to expand its online business there and work with the Indian IT industry.

Last year, it poured some $80 million into Indian IT companies such as e-sports startups Nodwin Gaming, game streaming platform Loco and story-telling platform Pratilipi.

“Krafton has been steadily investing to contribute to the development of the overall Indian digital ecosystem,” said a company source, adding it plans to make direct investment in the country’s game market further.

Krafton has said it planned to use 70% of the proceeds from its initial public offering last year for global buyouts and 15% for investment in other countries such as India.

Write to Min-Ki Koo at kook@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.