By
Kalpana Shah
Hoping
to tap into the nascent Indian online games market, Mumbai-based
Games2win announced Wednesday it had raised about $5 million from
leading U.S.
venture capital firms Clearstone Venture Partners and Silicon Valley
Bank Financial Group.
The
six-month-old Games2win.com website is currently dedicated to casual
games based on quintessential Indian situations, such as racing
rickshaws on bumpy roads. Other games are based on Bollywood films.
The company’s first round of funding, in which Clearstone invested
the majority of the funds, will be used to upgrade content, hire
talent, and build the brand.
“We
want to license globally popular MMOG [massive multiplayer online
games] for India,”
said Alok Kejriwal, CEO of Games2win.
Mr.
Kejriwal said there is huge demand for such games, but spending
habits of Indian gamers are conservative. Mr. Kejriwal expects
players to spend an average of about 100 rupees [$2.20] a month on
an average on games. Games2win will distribute smartcards similar to
prepaid cards for mobile phones that allow customers to pay in
advance for service.
Some
3.5 million people play online games in
India,
according to Mr. Kejriwal, but the numbers are likely to grow 50 to
100 percent every year for the next five to 10 years. In April 2006,
a study by San Francisco-based analyst and consulting firm Pearl
Research had forecast that the online games market in
India
would exceed $200 million in 2010.
The
Pearl
report said the Indian online games market is being driven by the
rapid adoption of the Internet, increased broadband penetration, the
growth in Internet cafés, and a sizable middle-class with rising
disposable income.
Another
trend that will bring in new players is the opening of
gaming-oriented cafés such as local Internet company Sify’s
Gamedromes. Meanwhile, Indian conglomerate Reliance ADAG in November
launched casual gaming site Zapak and said it will invest $100
million in the venture.
“We
want to invest in the Internet space in India. After scouting for
months, I think we found the gold standard in Games2win,” said Rahul
Khanna, a director at Clearstone.