Tag: WinZO

gaming

WinZO Collaborates with Ranveer Singh’s upcoming movie 83

Dec 20, 2021 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #‘83’, #Ranveer Singh., #Sameer Chopra, #Saumya Singh Rathore, #the Indian team, #WinZO

India’s largest vernacular game tech company, WinZO announced its collaboration with the upcoming Ranveer Singh starrer Bollywood film, ‘83’. Produced by Deepika Padukone, Sajid Nadiadwala, Reliance Entertainment and Phantom Films, the film features leading Bollywood actors Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Pankaj Tripathi among others. Resonating with the common values of competing, performing and winning, the film chose to collaborate with WinZO as their official brand partner and will help bring together billions of Indians from across the country to experience the thrill and excitement of winning.

The movie depicts the inspiring roller coaster journey of the Indian team, considered as an underdog in the 1983 Cricket World Cup tournament, competing ferociously and eventually beating the best teams to clinch the coveted cup. The kick of winning at Lord’s in 1983 is still fresh in the minds of all the Indians and cricket enthusiasts in the country. This win played a pivotal role in shaping the cricket landscape in the country. Similar to 83’s kick of winning, users can experience the same excitement and thrill of winning by participating in 100+ games across 6+ engaging formats offered by WinZO.

As an interactive entertainment brand, WinZO focuses on celebrating competition among 65M+ registered users, allowing them to experience the thrill of small yet powerful winning moments in their daily lives. The collaboration will see WinZO launch a nationwide multi-modal co-branded TV commercial featuring the Bollywood superstar Ranveer Singh.

The TVC will be showcased across platforms including TV, OTT, Digital and social media, where the actor guides audiences to experience the kick of winning by playing more than 100 games available on the WinZO platform. To celebrate this association, WinZO is facilitating its users a golden chance to meet Ranveer Singh and other cast members. Users will also stand a chance to win free movie tickets and memorabilia such as autographed cricket bats and jerseys.

Speaking on the occasion, Saumya Singh Rathore, Co-founder, WinZO said, “We are thrilled about the association with the movie, 83. The historic win at Lord’s is a day that changed the mindsets and temperament of an entire nation. It reinforced the belief of competing against the best in the world and still emerging victorious, even with limited resources. This mindset is synonymous with what we as a company want to promote amongst our users – the winning spirit. Being the leaders in this space, we see this collaboration with the powerhouse Ranveer Singh as a fitting one.”

Sameer Chopra, Head of Marketing, Reliance Entertainment added, “With this collaboration, we intend to reach out to all the young movie fanatics and game lovers. We are thankful to team WinZO for giving us this platform and opportunity to collaborate. WinZO’s association will make this celebration all the more special and grander by giving Indians another chance to reminisce and experience this remarkable win.”

As a part of bolstering its brand visibility, WinZO also recently inked principal sponsorships for two major Vivo Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) teams, Bengal Warriors and Gujarat Giants, as well as associate sponsorship for Patna Pirates. The company has been aggressively investing in aiding the game-tech ecosystem by supporting and engaging with game developers, studios, players, game streamers, and talent amongst others.

News

WinZO goes big, inks itself as the principal sponsor for marquee Kabaddi teams for PKL season 8

Dec 10, 2021 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Kabaddi team, #Mr. Paavan Nanda, #PKL season 8, #Sandip Tarkas, #WinZO

The fastest-growing social gaming platform, WinZO, has been announced as the new principal sponsor for Future Group-owned, Bengal Warriors and, Adani Group’s Gujarat Fortune Giants for the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League’s (PKL) Season 8. Focusing on developing a culturally relevant sporting ecosystem, WinZO sees this sponsorship as organic and supporting local talent which promotes “Bharat ka Khel- Kabaddi”.

Vivo PKL, India’s professional Kabaddi league, is the second most viewed sporting event in the country, second only to the Indian Premier League (IPL), with a viewership of 430 million. Taking pride in the homegrown sport and the talent, WinZO strives to pursue a shift in the interests towards other native sports that have the potential to showcase Indian mettle on a global level. Capturing the Indian sentiment and a huge audience outside the periphery of mainstream sports such as cricket, WinZO inked this partnership to encourage talent, sportsmen, and the spirit of raw sportsmanship.

With a specific focus on the interactive needs of audiences across markets, WinZO’s support of these teams will enable them to leverage its vernacular strength. Hosting 80+ games in 12 languages for a user base of 65 million+, 90% of WinZO’s user base is spread across tier II to tier V markets. With a presence in the deepest parts of the country and 80% of the user base consuming content in vernacular, WinZO persists to provide social interactive games and formats that are enjoyed by the masses, a synergy that coincides with Vivo PKL aptly.

Expressing his thoughts on this association, Mr. Paavan Nanda, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), WinZO said, “We are absolutely delighted to associate with the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League as the principal sponsor for two stellar teams. Just like Kabaddi, WinZO is also homegrown and is building for Bharat. The opportunity struck an instant chord with us. We believe that the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League will certainly provide a massive boost to the growth of the sport and players in the country. It’s a matter of great pride for us to play our part in the advancement of Kabaddi in India.”

Speaking about the development, Sandip Tarkas, CEO, Bengal Warriors said, “We are delighted to welcome WinZO as the lead sponsor for Bengal Warriors. The game Kabaddi has really found its rightful place as the largest sports league in India. Bengal Warriors is one of the founding teams of Vivo PKL and is one of the most exciting teams in the league. With WinZO’s association we are sure Kabaddi will make a BIG splash in the online games space as well.”

WinZO is passionate about the ‘Sporting and Gaming culture of India’. The popular social gaming platform has been a preferred destination for social interactive games across markets and age groups. The company is committed to promoting indigenous sporting talent and providing a fillip to the overall gaming ecosystem.

Over the years, WinZO has significantly invested its tech and distribution capabilities towards the development of the ecosystem. It has adeptly contributed to the various constituents associated with the gaming environment such as game developers, studios, players, game streamers, and talent amongst others.

Business World

WinZO sponsorships India’s First ever XO Space; to boost Esports penetration in Bharat supporting 12+ languages

Feb 18, 2021 by Neel Achary 0 Comments #India’s largest vernacular social gaming platform, #WinZO

Hyderabad/ New Delhi: WinZO, India’s largest vernacular social gaming platform, is the official sponsor of XO Space. XO Space is India’s first ever Gaming House that is being hosted by its parent company Esports XO.

The gaming house will feature India’s 40 biggest and most followed Freefire Youtubers and streamers with a combined subscriber base of 75 million+. Pro Freefire Gamers such as ProNation and Dev Alone will be participating in this 11-month long competition which will be live streamed on WinZO and YouTube. The content will be hosted on the vernacular app, WinZO, in multiple languages to propel the reach to the deeper parts of Bharat. Within a week of launch, this event is projected to garner 1 Billion+ eyeballs, alone over YouTube. XO Space is also witnessing participation from Indian Sub-continent and countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal and other South East Asian countries. While this is an opportunity to build further on the streaming ecosystem, the winning team of the XO space will be rewarded with a Cash prize worth Rs.11 lacs.

Post PUBG ban and cancellation of offline eSports globally due to COVID 19 pandemic, XO Space is a boost to the pursuit of Indian gaming talent to rise to international fame.

In an unprecedented move, over the last 3 months, WinZO has partnered with 100,000 ByteDance influencers (Helo and TikTok) from tier II and smaller cities/towns who were affected by the shutdown of the operations of TikTok post government ban over the Chinese apps. WinZO has deployed resources to upskill these influencers through extensive and structured training programs on gaming content creation and streaming technologies. The Vernacular focused Gaming and Streaming platform is not only distributing culturally relevant regional content but also democratising content making at a massive scale. This is a positive step in the support of PM Modi’s Atmanibhar Campaign.

One such beneficiary of WinZO’s upskilling program is Pro Freefire Player and streamer Mr. Lokesh Raj, popularly known as “Lokesh Gamer”. Lokesh started with WinZO at a very nascent stage with 200k subscribers and today enjoys 7.5M+ subscribers on his official YouTube channel. Mr. Raj said “WinZO played a pivotal role in upgrading my skills. Their training on regional content creation and streaming tech helped me create industry-standard content to engage my users effectively and has resulted in swift growth. I leverage significantly from the traffic that can from WinZO to my channel, growing my channel from sub 200K to above 7MM follower base within 12 months. ”

WinZO also developed a cutting edge tool; WinZO Developer Console (console.winzogames.com) to democratize game publishing for the game developers who can access the ready market of 30M+ registered user base of WinZO and effectively monetize their games. WinZO’s user base consists of transacting users who reportedly make 1 billion+ microtransactions per month on the platform. This effective monetization model allows developers to earn 100X more revenues than their play store and apple store IAP and Ad based revenues.

Mr. Ranjan Shrestha, of Bhoos Entertainment, who runs a ten-membered game studio and was one of the beneficiaries of WinZO’s developer’s fund-I of $1.5 million corpus said: “We had multiple games which were not doing so well on play store and other stores in terms of revenue generation. However, after the partnership and integration of those games on WinZO, we have received huge traction from the same games, thanks to the specialization of WinZO in promotion and marketing. Algorithms to push the content to the relevant audience helped drive the engagement further. We have seen 100x more returns than any other sources and we do not need to worry about the monetization and distribution at all. Our sole focus is to build high-quality games.”

As an extension of its Game Developer-I fund, WinZO also recently announced the Game Developer Fund-II with a corpus of $5 Million with the vision to support and nurture game development, ESports, Streaming. So far, it has received 1000+ submissions on the Game Developer Console against the announced fund. WinZO has also opened its offices for these developers to collaborate & build together with the team.

Earlier in September 2020, WinZO announced its Series-B funding of $18 Million led by global interactive entertainment fund Makers Fund based in Singapore, New York-based Courtside Venture, and Steve Pagliuca, the Co-Chairman of Bain Capital and investor in Epic Games – developers of massively popular game, Fortnite.

Business World

WinZO becomes the official Co-Powered Sponsor in India-Australia Series on Sony Liv

Nov 27, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #India’s tour of Australia, #Mr. Paavan Nanda, #Ms. Saumya Singh Rathore, #Ranjana Mangla, #SonyLIV, #WinZO

India’s largest vernacular social gaming platform WinZO is set to be the official co-powered sponsor of the India Tour of Australia on SonyLIV. This is the first time WinZO will be sponsoring a major sports event on a digital platform. SonyLIV is the OTT brand of Sony Pictures Networks India.

India’s tour of Australia, starting on 27th November 2020, is India’s first international tour after nine months post the global COVID-19 pandemic lockdown; India last played New Zealand in February 2020. The tour is two-month-long, comprising a three-match ODI series, followed by a three-match T20 series and a four-match Test series.

WinZO was recently in news for its $18 million Series B funding led by global interactive entertainment fund, Makers Fund, New York-based Courtside Venture, and Steve Pagliuca, the Co-Chairman of Bain Capital and investor in Epic Games – developers of the massively popular game, Fortnite. All these investors have made their first investments in the Indian market for the first time through WinZO.

WinZO is on a mission to create a highly personalized and localized social gaming platform powered by Microtransactions, where users can enjoy multiple engaging gaming formats and fantasy sports in 10+ regional languages with their friends or strangers online. Founded by Mr. Paavan Nanda and Ms. Saumya Singh Rathore, WinZO has been successful in delivering strong positive unit economics in the Indian gaming ecosystem and has continued to support the Gaming ecosystem by setting-up a Game Developers Fund 2.0 of a $5 million corpus to fund projects in interactive entertainment space built by game developers.

Speaking on the development, Ms. Saumya Singh Rathore, Co-Founder, WinZO Games said, “India is a market with over a billion cricket fans who have been hungry for cricketing action for the last nine months. Post-IPL, it is great to see the resuming of international tournaments as well and it’s a proud moment for us to associate with the first India-Australia International Series of the year. WinZO is always committed to bringing the best entertainment to Bharat”

Talking about the partnership, Ranjana Mangla, Head Ad Sales Revenue, Digital Business, SonyLIV said, “We are really delighted to have WinZO as a co-powered sponsor for the India tour of Australia on SonyLIV. This is a big overseas tournament that’s sure to drive viewership on the platform and be of value to both brands.”

Business World

WinZO announces Game Developer Fund II of $5 Million, eyeing to uplift Indian Game Developer Ecosystem

Nov 7, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #Bhoos Entertainment, #Fortnite, #Game Developer Fund II, #Indian Game Developer, #Mr. Ranjan Shrestha, #Paavan Nanda, #Steve Pagliuca, #WinZO

WinZO, India’s largest vernacular social gaming platform, announces a $5MM (Rs.37.50 Crore) fund to uplift the Indian Game Developer ecosystem. This news comes after the startup announced its Series-B of $18 Million led by global interactive entertainment fund Makers Fund based in Singapore, New York-based Courtside Venture, and Steve Pagliuca, the Co-Chairman of Bain Capital and investor in Epic Games – developers of the massively popular game, Fortnite.

The company had earlier announced Fund I of $1.5 million in July 2019. In response, it received 250+ applications from large and small developers and ended up deploying the capital across 9 teams. It onboarded all those projects on WinZO’s platform.

Given the way Indian Gaming engagement has gone through the roof on the back of COVID19 and ban of Chinese Apps such as PUBG, Tiktok, company has increased its allocation amount to $5MM in order to have a strong impact on boosting the Indian Gaming Ecosystem. This move is in line with Prime Minister’s Atmanirbharta mission wherein the company is scouting to fund projects in interactive entertainment space. Applications are open till December 31, 2020.

Announcing the fund, Paavan Nanda, Co-founder, WinZO Games, said: We feel excited to announce the launch of Game Developer Fund II. Through this initiative, we are committed to uplift the Indian Gaming Ecosystem which is at the cusp of disruption. There is infinite talent and creativity and we would like to offer everything else that’s required for a team to create a dent in this space and create gaming products for the entertainment-starved Bharat.

We are not just focusing on Gaming projects but also equally keen to evaluate Game Ops, Streaming, Esports, etc related proposals. We also ensure a sustainable revenue stream by providing a ready-made market for the selected projects by introducing them to our 25 million+ registered user base.

The platform currently offers its users 70+ skill-based games on its android app in 12 regional languages. WinZO received over 250+ applications for the previous fund, of which it has already onboarded 10+ games. These games were from across genres including casual games, board games, battle royales, arcade games etc.

The mission for WinZO is to onboard 500+ new exciting games for its users and bring the best of entertainment for the mobile-first audience.

Mr. Ranjan Shrestha, of Bhoos Entertainment, who runs a four-membered game studio and was one of the beneficiaries of WinZO’s developer’s fund said: “We had multiple games which were not doing so well on play store and other stores in terms of revenue generation.

However, after the partnership and integration of those games on WinZO, we have received huge traction from the same games, thanks to the specialization of WinZO in promotion and marketing. Algorithms to push the content to the relevant audience helped drive the engagement further. We have seen 10x more returns than any other sources and we do not need to worry about the monetization and distribution at all. Our sole focus is to build high-quality games.”