Nazara Technologies, a leading global gaming and sports media company has completed its majority stake acquisition of 51 percent in Paper Boat Apps by issuing Nazara shares worth Rs 43 crores as part of its final tranche of the transaction.

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Paper Boat Apps are developers of the popular ‘Made in India’ app Kiddopia catering to young children in the age bracket of 2 to 7 years old.

This is Nazara’s second transaction in the year 2020, after undertaking a majority stake-holding in fantasy platform, Halaplay Technologies last month.

This transaction is part of the Rs 83 crore stake deal to acquire majority in Paper Boat Apps valuing the company in excess of Rs 150 crore.

Since the initial funding, Kiddopia has seen over 300 percent growth in revenues and is now witnessing an annualized revenue run rate of over Rs 175 crores.

On the growth trajectory, Anupam Dhanuka, Co-Founder and CEO, Kiddopia said, “This investment from Nazara has helped us focus on product enhancement and marketing, thereby leading to a 3x growth in subscriber base.”

He further adds “We have just finished our best month and we expect our topline to grow 2x in annual revenues by March 2021.”

Nitish Mittersain, Founder and MD, Nazara Technologies says, “Gamified edtech is the only way to deliver high quality learning to young kids on digital devices. Kiddopia is a perfect example of this overlap between gaming and learning and their popularity amongst parents and kids speaks for itself. Nazara is very happy to add Kiddopia to our portfolio catering to over 100 million monthly active users on our network”

With 20 million monthly active kids playing and over 180 million downloads on Google Play and App store, Nazara is also one of the largest free to play kids games publisher in India. With this move to acquire Kiddopia, Nazara hopes to further strengthen its position in the kid’s edutainment vertical.

Nazara’s network comprises of several well-known franchises and market leading brands including the popular World Cricket Championship in cricket gaming, Halaplay in fantasy sports, Nodwin Gaming in Esports and now Kiddopia in the Kids category.

Launched in 2017 by husband-wife, Anupam and Anshu Dhanuka, Kiddopia has been downloaded by more than 5 million parents around the world and currently has over 300,000 active subscribers.

A subscription based edutainment app for early learners, Kiddopia offers interactive games and activities that foster cognitive development, self-expression and also social-emotional learning in early age kids.

Founded by Nitish Mittersain in 2000, Nazara is backed by marquee investors which include West Bridge Capital, IIFL Special Opportunities Fund; Rakesh Jhunjhunwala and Turtle Entertainment GmbH, the IP owner of the world’s largest esports franchise (ESL).​

First Published:Jul 16, 2020 3:46 PM IST