Mobile gaming startup Moonfrog's revenue surges, swings to profit in FY18

Bengaluru-based mobile phone games developer Moonfrog Labs Pvt. Ltd recorded a three-fold rise in revenue and also registered a net profit for the financial year ended 31 March 2018, its filings with the Registrar of Companies show.

The firm’s consolidated operating revenues grew to Rs 97.89 crore, up from Rs 35.77 crore in the previous year, the filings stated.

Moonfrog runs its business in India and the US, where it has a subsidiary, incorporated in January 2016.

Its India business, which grew three-fold, and its overseas business, which rose nearly two-fold, contributed to the growth of the firm’s consolidated operating revenue during the period under review.

Moonfrog recognises revenue from the sale of services within and outside India. It runs on a freemium-based model, where players can use the live services for free. Within these games, players can purchase virtual currency to enhance their gaming experience. The company also earns a part of its revenue from telecom aggregators, the company’s financial statement said.

The mobile gaming company’s sale of services in India grew to Rs 45.24 crore, up from Rs 14.38 crore in the previous year. Likewise, the sale of services from the overseas market grew to Rs 52.65 crore from Rs 21.38 crore in the year prior.

The increase in revenue also helped the company to clock a net profit of Rs 16.84 crore from a net loss of Rs 9.46 crore in the previous year.

E-mail queries sent to Tanay Tayal, co-founder of the venture, seeking comments on the company’s financial performance did not elicit a comment at the time of publishing this report.

However, the company’s gross expenditures grew 63% to Rs 84.96 crore, up from Rs 52.27 crore in the previous year. Employee benefit expenses (Rs 39.54 crore), platform hosting/payment gateway and facilitation charges (Rs 17.42 crore) and other expenses (Rs 20.33 crore), which include server charges, legal and professional charges, and software and licensing fees, accounted for the majority of expenses.

Moonfrog Labs was found in 2013 by former Zynga employees Tayal, Ankit Jain, Kumar Puspesh and Oliver Jones. In 2016, Jones quit MoonFrog and worked with another US-listed mobile games producer Glu Mobile at Hyderabad before setting up his second venture, games development startup Bombay Play, along with Abhas Saroha, his Moonfrog colleague.

Moonfrog has developed and published various games such as Teen Patti Gold, Baahubali: The Game, and Alia Bhatt: Star Life.

The company’s website states that Teen Patti Gold has been downloaded more than 20 million and features among the top five highest-grossing games in India on both Android and iOS.

In 2015, the company had raised $15 million (Rs 92 crore) from Tiger Global and existing investor Sequoia Capital.

An MBA from INSEAD, Tayal had earlier worked at Komli Media, SAP, Netapp and Infosys among others. A post graduate in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology, Jain has previously worked at Google and Microsoft. Puspesh, the third co-founder is a computer science graduate from IIT-Kharagpur and has earlier worked with Komli Media and Lehmann Brothers.