Nodwin Gaming, which announced acquisition of Comic Con India, believes the strategic move will help diversify its entertainment offerings and strengthen its youth portfolio. The company plans to expand the reach of Comic Con India both in the domestic and in international markets.
As part of this transaction, Nodwin Gaming, a subsidiary of Nazara Technologies, will acquire 100 per cent of the shares of Comic Con India at a valuation of ₹55 crore through a combination of cash and share swap from the founders of Comic Con India. The founders, Jatin Varma and Karan Kalra will continue to operate the business as part of the company. Comic Con India currently holds its festivals in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
Akshat Rathee, Co-founder and Managing Director, Nodwin Gaming told businessline, “ We have always believed that the same community that is playing video games also has a keen interest in comic books, cosplay and manga. There is a continued intersection of gaming, pop culture and esports. As gaming matures to become a more overarching cultural phenomenon, we will have multiple vectors to connect with the youth, whether it’s the DreamHack Gaming festival or the Blue Sky Comedy Festival or the Comic Con festivals.”
Domestic expansion
Talking about the future roadmap, Rathee said, “ We believe Comic Con India is a strong and robust IP that is scalable. We will increase the number of festivals and the reach of these festivals. We see huge potential to expand it in the domestic market. Nodwin currently operates in about 20 countries and we will also look at expanding it to some of these markets.”
Comic Con India ended FY23 with a turnover of ₹16.26 crore. Rathee added that Comic Con India is a “strong cash flow generating EBITDA positive entity” that will continue to drive its growth from internal accruals with support from Nodwin when required.
Jatin Varma, Founder, Comic Con India pointed out that there are a lot of synergies in terms of audience of the IPs that currently exist in the Nodwin’s portfolio and the consumers that attend the Comic Con festivals.“. Over the years, the interest in our festivals has been growing. This is evident not just from social media engagements but also the fact that people travel from smaller cities to the larger cities to attend the festivals. At the end of the day, they are all consumers of the same content. So it’s a format that works well in larger cities and we will also look at how we can take it to smaller cities,” Varma added.