GAMEZOP WAS born when Yashash’s passion for mobile games met Gaurav’s penchant for solving puzzles. In a country where over 65% of population is under 35, the challenge was to make popular games from developers accessible to young Indians. The Agarwal brothers devised a business model, making Gamezop a known brand not only in India, but across the globe.
Gamezop operates on a business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) model. It licenses popular games from leading developers, adds them to its game centre, and embeds the game centre into non-gaming apps and websites such as Amazon, which see immediate growth in engagement and revenue, says co-founder Gaurav Agarwal.
Sensing a big potential for Gamezop, Gaurav left his job with Bain Consultancy to pursue entrepreneurship. In the second half of 2016, the Agarwal brothers incorporated Advergame Technologies Pvt. Ltd., the holding company of the Gamezop brand, with Yashash as the CEO.
As on date, Gamezop’s game centre is live within more than 5,000 apps and websites in 70 countries (the company calls them distribution partners), with over 1 billion players.
Gamezop generates revenue through advertisements, and shares advertising revenue with distribution partners. It achieved a topline of ₹42 crore in FY22, of which, nearly 50% was paid to distribution partners. The company, which operates within the verticals of gaming and quizzing, is looking to expand into news, short videos and opinion trading using its B2B2C distribution model.
Gamezop raised ₹32 crore in a Series A funding round in 2020. Bitkraft Ventures, the world’s largest gaming fund, is a prime investor in Advergame Technologies. Velo Partners and FJ Labs are the other venture capital funds that have invested in Gamezop. Bollywood actor Rana Daggubati, redBus founder Phanindra Sama, GSF Accelerator founder Rajesh Sawhney, and TV personality Roshan Abbas have also invested in the company. — Rajiv Ranjan Singh