WestBridge Ventures, an early investor of Nazara Technologies, which owns the fantasy sports platform HalaPlay, has sold its stake to Plutus Wealth.
WestBridge Ventures II Investment Holdings, a private equity fund of WestBridge Capital, has completely exited from Nazara Technologies, the owner of fantasy sports platform HalaPlay.
In a secondary transaction - meaning an existing investor selling its interest to a third-party buyer - WestBridge Ventures sold shares worth INR 500 crore to Plutus Wealth Management LLP.
Nitish Mittersain had founded Nazara Technologies during the dot-com bubble in 1999.
WestBridge, which was one of the early investors of Nazara Technologies, had invested an estimated amount of INR 22.6 crore in the gaming firm in 2005.
“WestBridge Capital backed Nitish at a very early stage back in 2005. Since then, the company has created great shareholder value and created a market leader,” said Sandeep Singhal, co-founder, WestBridge Capital.
Mittersain, who is also the Managing Director of Nazara Technologies, highlighted the importance of ‘creating value’ for its investors.
“Creating value for all our stakeholders including our investors has always been very important for us and I am glad that we have been able to deliver a great return to WestBridge who backed us early on in 2005,” said Mittersain.
Nazara Technologies had acquired a majority stake in HalaPlay in June 2020 after buying Kae Capital’s shares worth INR 14.6 crore. The fantasy sports platform currently boasts fantasy cricket, fantasy football, and fantasy kabaddi in its roster.
Apart from HalaPlay, the Mumbai-based gaming firm has also invested in Nodwin Gaming, Sportskeeda, Next Wave Multimedia, Bakbuck, and InstaSportz.
Arpit Khandelwal, the managing partner of the new investor Plutus Wealth, showed great faith in Nazara Technologies and believes that the world’s interest in gaming will only peak in the coming years.
“We believe gaming will be a prominent form of entertainment and will do well in the next decade. We believe that Nazara is well-placed to leverage the vast available opportunity. We are excited to begin our long-term journey with their goal and vision," Khandelwal said.
