WinZO, announced a $5 million fund to uplift the Indian game developer ecosystem. This news comes after the startup announced its Series-B of $18 million led by global interactive entertainment fund Makers Fund based in Singapore, New York-based Courtside Venture, and Bain Capital co-chairman and investor in Epic Games Steve Pagliuca.
The company had earlier announced Fund I of $1.5 million in July 2019. In response, it received 250+ applications from large and small developers and ended up deploying the capital across nine teams. It onboarded all those projects on WinZO’s platform. Given the way Indian Gaming engagement has gone through the roof on the back of COVID19 and ban of Chinese Apps such as PUBG, Tiktok, company has increased its allocation amount to $5 million in order to have a strong impact on boosting the Indian gaming ecosystem. This move is in line with the prime minister’s Atmanirbharta mission wherein the company is scouting to fund projects in interactive entertainment space. Applications are open till 31 December 2020.
Announcing the fund WinZO Games co-founder Paavan Nanda said:”We feel excited to announce the launch of Game Developer Fund II. Through this initiative, we are committed to uplift the Indian Gaming Ecosystem which is at the cusp of disruption. There is infinite talent and creativity and we would like to offer everything else that’s required for a team to create a dent in this space and create gaming products for the entertainment-starved Bharat. We are not just focusing on Gaming projects but also equally keen to evaluate Game Ops, Streaming, Esports, etc related proposals. We also ensure a sustainable revenue stream by providing a ready-made market for the selected projects by introducing them to our 25 million+ registered user base. “
The platform currently offers its users 70+ skill-based games on its android app in 12 regional languages. WinZO received over 250+ applications for the previous fund, of which it has already onboarded 10+ games. These games were from across genres including casual games, board games, battle royales, arcade games and more.
The mission for WinZO is to onboard 500+ new exciting games for its users and bring the best of entertainment for the mobile-first audience.
Ranjan Shrestha of Bhoos Entertainment, who runs a four-membered game studio and was one of the beneficiaries of WinZO’s developer’s fund said: “We had multiple games which were not doing so well on the play store and other stores in terms of revenue generation. However, after partnership and integration of those games on WinZO, we have received huge traction from the same games, thanks to the specialization of WinZO in promotion and marketing. Algorithms to push the content to the relevant audience helped drive the engagement further. We have seen 10x more returns than any other sources and we do not need to worry about the monetization and distribution at all. Our sole focus is to build high quality games.”