Leading mobile gaming company Nazara Technologies has picked up a 10% minority stake in Bengaluru-based VR gaming startup InstaSportz Consultancy Pvt Ltd. The company is expected to raise its stake from 10% to 26% by November.
With the latest investment, Nazara is looking to enter the offline VR gaming space, in order to provide interactive entertainment via VR lounges in tier 1 and tier 2 cities across India.
Talking about the investment, Manish Agarwal, CEO of Nazara Technologies, said, “At Nazara, we wish to offer interactive entertainment that blends sports, virtual reality, and arcade gaming thus offering an immersive gaming experience across all age groups. With this investment in Instasportz, we are pushing ourselves to offer gaming lead entertainment to the gamers across various touch points and aim to give them a chance to experience the Virtual Reality games at the Instazones and continue the thrill of gaming on their mobile phones once they head back home.”
InstaSportz Consultancy was founded by Bigith Nambiar and KR Rahul in 2016. It offers state-of-the-art VR gaming kiosks called Instazones to provide an enhanced gaming experience to its users. These Instazones are set up across various malls and multiplexes across the country.
The startup has also partnered with multiplex chain Carnival Cinemas Ltd, to set up Instazones at their theatres. Currently, InstaSportz is available in Kota, City Mall Ludhiana, Silver Arc Mall, Calicut, HiLite Mall, Bengaluru. Over the next few years, the startup intends to expand to over 100 towns.
InstaSportz is aiming to expand its presence by leveraging the vast Nazara network spread across 61 countries.
According to Google KPMG report in May 2017, Indian online gaming industry is expected to reach $1 billion by 2021 from the current $360 million. With constant innovations in the offline gaming world through VR and AR, the number of opportunities in the gaming space keeps on growing.
Another major player competing with Nazara in the offline gaming space is Sachin Tendulkar-backed Smaaash Entertainment, a company that provides VR gaming experience.