NODWIN Lines Up $100 Mn Pre-IPO Round For Its Next Act

With its IPO on the line, NODWIN Gaming is going beyond gaming and esports. The company is looking to transition into a youth media brand to differentiate itself from its one-time parent company Nazara. As part of this journey, the company is planning to raise around $100 Mn in a pre-IPO round, NODWIN’s cofounder Akshat Rathee told Inc42. 

Alongside this, existing investors may partially offload stakes via secondary transactions, allowing for limited liquidity, around 10-15%, without any full exits.

This capital will not be earmarked for aggressive geographic expansion, much of which is already in place, but for deepening its core business.

The focus will be sharply on two areas: IP expansion and monetisation. “I think our international expansion efforts are largely done,” Rathee said. “The capital will be used to expand IPs and build better monetisation layers. Those are the areas where we see long-term value.”

IPO Readiness

NODWIN already operates in over 22 countries, with a strong footprint across the Global South. Its expansion strategy has been measured and nuanced, prioritising revenue pipelines from developed markets while building scalable execution capabilities in emerging regions.

Rather than investing heavily in expensive assets across North America or Europe, the company is attempting to replicate a playbook familiar to Indian IT services giants: generate demand in the Global North and deliver at scale from more cost-efficient markets.

Instead of tapping public markets during favourable cycles, NODWIN Gaming is taking a calibrated, process-driven approach to its IPO timeline.

Currently, the company is working through a structured readiness framework spanning financial performance, board and governance alignment, investor demand, regulatory compliance, and internal preparedness, Rathee said. Bankers are simultaneously assessing market appetite and book-building visibility before a final call is taken.

“You have to be ready for the IPO. There is financial readiness, board readiness, investor readiness, company readiness, founder readiness, each of these runs as a separate track. If it takes three months, it takes three months. If it takes seven or even eleven months, so be it. The moment all signals are ‘go’ that’s when we file,” Rathee said.

NODWIN is expected to close the current fiscal with a turnover of around ₹700  Cr, significantly higher than Nazara’s revenue at the time of its IPO, while remaining profitable in India and sustaining a 20–40% annual growth trajectory with gradual margin expansion.

Yet, for the company, the IPO is not about mirroring past listings or chasing valuation benchmarks. “Going public is not the end. It gives us access to better capital to continue building. I’m not trying to build a billion-dollar valuation company, I want to build a billion-dollar revenue company,” Rathee said.

NODWIN’s Hard Separation From Nazara

While Nodwin has long been associated with Nazara, one of the key things that the market might look at is how differently it positions itself to public market investors. For public market investors, the two have often been viewed through a similar lens, given NODWIN’s origins within Nazara’s portfolio. However, the company is now actively working to reposition itself as a fundamentally different business.

“NODWIN has evolved into a large media company,” the founder noted, highlighting the shift in identity over the past few years. At its core, the divergence lies in business model and strategic focus.

Nazara operates as a diversified gaming and sports media platform with investments across gaming studios, real-money gaming, and interactive entertainment businesses. Its strength lies in building and backing gaming IPs and platforms across segments. NODWIN, on the other hand, is positioning itself as a youth media company anchored in gaming, but extending far beyond it.

“We remain a new-age youth media company across the Global South. We have two lines of business: live and content,” he added.

The live business represents its on-ground, experiential engine, built around large-scale, non-scripted formats where audiences engage in real time. This includes properties such as Comic Con, music festivals like NH7 Weekender, esports tournaments, and other fan-driven events. The idea is to convert digital audiences into physical communities, deepening engagement and turning casual viewers into highly invested fans.

Complementing this is its content business, which operates as the always-on digital layer. This spans IP-led shows, influencer campaigns, gaming and youth culture content, podcasts, newsletters, and social media distribution. It also integrates monetisation avenues such as ticketing, brand partnerships, and digital transactions

On the other hand, as a stock, he wants to pitch NODWIN as a long-term capital appreciation story. “We do not want to be a dividend stock, We want to be a capital appreciation stock,” he added.

The idea is to attract investors who are aligned with its long-term vision, those willing to back the company’s ambition to become a global youth media leader, rather than focusing on short-term earnings metrics.

The Future Is Beyond Gaming

As NODWIN moves closer to its IPO, its strategic direction appears clear.

The company is betting on the rise of the fandom economy, a space where content, community, commerce, and experiences intersect. It is building IPs that cater to different demographics, creating ecosystems where fans can engage across multiple touchpoints, and layering monetisation opportunities on top.

From gaming tournaments and comic conventions to digital content and influencer networks, each piece of the puzzle feeds into a larger vision.

The company reported ₹261 Cr revenue in Q3 FY26, a 1.6X surge from previous year, while it saw a ₹40 Cr profit as well recovering from 8.3 Cr loss in the previous financial year. 

The growth was driven by a packed events calendar, including marquee properties like the StarLadder CS Major in Budapest. Profitability also saw an uptick as several owned IPs, including Comic Con. Building on this momentum, the company is now targeting EBITDA-level profitability by FY26.

In many ways, NODWIN’s pre-IPO journey is a story of expansion, not just in scale, but in identity. It has moved from being a niche esports player to a diversified media company with global ambitions. Whether the public markets fully buy into this vision remains to be seen. 

[Edited by Nikhil Subramaniam]

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