India-based gaming media platform Nazara is no stranger to investments, both raising money itself and investing in others. Among investments galore is the latest from SBI Mutual Fund, which has given Nazara $49 million and raised its valuation to $660 million.

Only last month, Nazara announced a $500,000 investment of its own into mobile game studio Snax Games, thereby entering an exclusive publishing agreement for the latter’s games in India and the Middle East.

Other key Nazara investments include claiming a majority stake in MENA publisher Publishme and offering $2.5 million to Bitkraft Ventures to bolster three main initiatives.

India rises

SBI Mutual Fund will use three schemes for distribution of its investment into Nazara, TechInAsia reports: the SBI Multicap Fund, SBI Magnum Global Fund, and SBI Technology Opportunities Fund.

Once the investment has successfully been made, Nazara intends to use it towards further investments of its own - particularly in acquiring games and sports media companies. Esports companies are also in Nazara’s sights as it looks to broaden its growing empire, already rising fast with an 84% revenue increase in one financial year.

"Making India the gaming nation of the world has been a long-pursued dream for all of us at Nazara. India’s largest domestic mutual fund investing in Nazara is an important milestone for us in this two-decade-long journey," said Nazara Technologies CEO Nitish Mittersain.

With the amount of money Nazara has raised, one investment from the platform would be enough to springboard other keen Indian players into the gaming market. And as India looks primed to outpace China’s success in mobile - the former is predicted to reach $8.6bn in value by 2027 - Nazara could prove to be an important company in achieving this.

We included Nazara on our Top 50 Game Makers list, after all, as despite India’s growing success already, Mittersain believes "we are at the cusp" of even greater potential.