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Nazara acquires majority stake adtech firm Datawrkz

An initial 33%, with the option to acquire a further 22% by Q4 2023

Nazara acquires majority stake adtech firm Datawrkz

Indian games outfit Nazara Technologies has revealed that it has entered an agreement to acquire a 55 per cent share of Bangalore-based adtech firm Datawrkz.

Founded in 2013, Datawrkz is a global advertising firm that focuses on the optimisation of digital ads to boost user and revenue growth. For the calendar year 2021, the firm generated approximately $12.1 million in revenue, with around 70 per cent generated from the US.

Nazara will acquire an initial 33 per cent stake in Datawrkz for approximately $5.9 million (INR 60 Crores), with $3.4 million paid in cash and the remaining balance to be paid in either cash or shares by April 22 2022.

Nazara withholds the option to purchase the remaining 22 per cent stake in Datawrkz in the second tranche of the agreement, expected to close in Q4 FY23. The acquisition agreement values Datawrkz at approximately $30 million.

Through the acquisition, Nazara aims to strengthen its in-house ad monetisation capabilities as well as optimise its UA spend. Furthermore, Nazara believes that the acquisition will aid its 'Friends of Nazra' network of companies with ad revenue monetisation.

Symbiotic relationship

Nazara CEO Manish Agarwal commented: "We strongly believe that growth of gaming focused ad tech will be exponential in the coming decade across geographies with the growth of gamers and game publishers across freemium, web3.0, and skill-based real money gaming.

"Ad tech companies with deep data processing capabilities and first party data ownership will emerge as winners in gaming focused ad tech and will help Datawrkz to create value for itself as well as for Nazara shareholders."

Following the acquisition, Datawrkz aims to establish itself as a "key player" in gaming in both the US and India with its demand and supply side offerings, Vizibl and AdPrimus.

Datawrkz founder Senthil Govindan added: "We had started this company with a vision to disrupt the digital advertising space. Datawrkz was already on a fast track to achieve our objective with rapid growth and satisfied clients around the world."

"Through our partnership with Nazara, I see our pace accelerating further. While Datawrkz will be able to immediately bring our natural strengths to bear within the existing Nazara fold, this also gives both sides a tremendous opportunity to build global advertising and publisher monetization products with a sharp focus on the gaming vertical."

At the start of the year, Indian games firm Zupee announced that it had partnered with Jio Platforms to increase its reach on the mobile market. The firm also revealed that it had raised $102 million across two recent Series B funding rounds.


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