Nirvana Venture Acquires 10% In Games2win; Nexus, ICICI Venture Part-exit

Nirvana Venture Advisors, the early-stage VC fund of the Patni family, has acquired 10 per cent stake in Games2win from a clutch of VC and PE firms, as well as from employee shareholders, for an undisclosed amount.

Early investors Nexus India Pvt Ltd and ICICI Venture part-exited the company by selling their shares to the new investor. However, lead investors Clearstone Venture Partners and SVB Holdings have not divested their shares in this transaction.

As part of the transaction, Amit Patni, co-founder of Nirvana Venture Advisors, will join the board of Games2win.

Alok Kejriwal, CEO and co-founder of Games2win, said, "We have very aggressive expansion plans for Games2win. Given that we have sufficient capital for growth, Nirvana invested in the company by providing partial exits to the early shareholders and key employees."

According to Kejriwal, the company's games have had a reasonable success on the Android platform and the mobile apps have crossed the 10 million download mark. The games have registered over 100 million game plays in just one month. "We are now set to create a large, global, consumer-revenue centric, social mobile gaming play," he added.

The online games company released its first mobile game Makeover Madness in 2009 and since then, has released close to 40 apps. One of the most successful games is a parking game called Parking Frenzy 2.0 (Android), which has been downloaded more than 3.6 million times. Other popular games include Super Mom (iOS), Makeover Madness (iOS), Volcano Flight (iOS) and Best Friends Forever (iOS).

As of now, the company owns more than 600 proprietary games and has over 15 million players each month on its network.

Rajan Mehra, MD of Nirvana Venture Advisors, said, "We are excited by what Games2win is creating and this investment allows us to align with the company at the right stage and also participate in its future success."

Games2Win has recently roped in Tirath Kamdar who has joined its board of advisors.

The company had raised $6 million in a series B funding from Clearstone Venture Partners and Silicon Valley Bank (SVB India Capital Partners) in March 2011.

"We have supported Alok across various firms in the 2win Group and we look forward to having Nirvana as a partner in the new growth phase of Games2Win," said Sandeep Singhal, MD of Nexus Venture Partners.

Techcircle.in got into a quick chat with Kejriwal, here are some excerpts:

Is it purely secondary share sale by early investors or includes fresh share issue?

We didn't actually raise money or receive any funds; it's only the shares of the company that exchanged hands.

What does the transaction signify?

Today, there are many companies in the country that are ready to list but are not able to do it because of the market conditions.

Many people have asked me "what happens to people who are investors in shares of companies that are unlisted (like Games2Win)?" I have always answered this question by saying if you create value proposition and a great company, people will still be interested in your shares even if you are not listed. This development signifies that.

What are your investment and expansion plans?

We plan to delve completely into casual social games on mobile phones and as far as generating revenues are concerned, we will be focused on sale of virtual goods and not advertisements. Additionally, very soon a senior US game designer will join us. Our investments will primarily be in people (getting new talent).

Have you launched any new product?

We recently launched our latest product called 'Appucino', which is a social gaming platform.

What is your end-game?

Like any other entrepreneur; our end game is to make a massive exit. As far as when can we see it happening, is not clear at this point of time.