Kratos Studios raises $20 million and acquires IndiGG

Kratos Studios announced that it had raised $20 million at a $150 million valuation and acquired IndiGG.

The initial round was led by Accel, with participation from Prosus Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Nazara and others.

Game veterans Manish Agarwal and Ishank Gupta started Kratos based in Bengaluru, India. They are building a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) of Web3 games under the IndiGG brand, which they also acquired through a token exchange. The funding will allow them to build distribution rails in emerging markets for global Web3 games.

In addition, the DAO will also invest in identifying, building and developing the world’s most promising Web3 games. Argarwal and Gupta will work closely with Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal and Yield Guild Games (YGG) co-founder Gabby Dizon on their mission to build the world’s largest gaming DAO.

Nazara Technologies, where Agarwal was CEO, also invested in this round with the intention of collaborating with IndiGG on the Web3 front.

In a statement, Agarwal said, “We are offering India’s 500 million gamers an opportunity to leverage their time and skill to become creators of digital products on the blockchain for global gaming. This could enable India to become the digital factory for the world.”

And Gupta said in a statement: “The IndiGG stack will partner with existing gaming microcommunities,
both on-ground and online, as sub-DAOs in the IndiGG ecosystem. The South Asia region has witnessed massive growth because of the young player population.”

“South Asia has a thriving gaming community. YGG is supporting IndiGG to build a nation of gamers and connect Indian gamers to the global world of Web3 Gaming.” Gabby Dizon, co-founder of YGG, said in a statement.

Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, added in a statement: “At Polygon, our dream of bringing a billion users on-chain can be given a huge boost through IndiGG. Under the leadership of Manish and Ishank, IndiGG will become the premier partner for networking and game creation on Web3.”

Upon acquisition, existing INDI token holders will be exchanged for new tokens at the time of the token generation event for the new token. Until then, the INDI token will continue to be traded on existing exchanges.

Agarwal joined India’s nascent gaming ecosystem 15 years ago, after successful stints with Hindustan Unilever and Microsoft, among others. As CEO of Nazara, he was the driving force behind making it India’s first and only publicly traded gaming company. Manish was also the Co-Chair of the IAMAI Gaming Council and the Convener of the FICCI Gaming Committee.

Gupta has operated and advised consumer businesses in China, the UK, South Africa and India. During his tenures at renowned global companies such as AB InBev and BCG, he built and led diverse and cross-functional teams. He actively invests in consumer and blockchain-focused early-stage ventures.