Krafton acquires controlling stake in Indian gaming studio Nautilus Mobile for $14M

Krafton, South Korea’s gaming giant known for titles including PUBG: Battlegrounds and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), has acquired a controlling stake in 12-year-old Indian gaming studio Nautilus Mobile for $14 million in an all-cash deal.

On Friday, the South Korean gaming company confirmed to TechCrunch that it has acquired a “north of 75% stake” in Nautilus, the gaming studio popular for its cricket enthusiast-focused Real Cricket franchise.

The Pune-based studio will continue to operate independently after the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the month, with all its 45 employees remaining on Nautilus’s payroll, Krafton told TechCrunch.

Founded in 2013, Nautilus has garnered millions of downloads for its Real Cricket franchise, which currently has five titles, including Real Cricket 24 and Real Cricket Premier League.

Krafton aims to strengthen Nautilus’s “core competence” in mobile cricket games — where demand is high in cricket-loving India — by refining its existing titles in the short term and exploring new genres in the long term, Sean Hyunil Sohn, CEO at Krafton India, said in an interview.

“Our development capability in Nautilus will help Krafton double down on its India gaming strategy, and together, we can probably build more games, more genres, both for the Indian market and global market going forward,” Nautilus CEO Anuj Mankar told TechCrunch.

The company plans to expand Nautilus’ presence to other geographies over time.

India’s mobile gaming market is growing steadily, driven by a large base of young smartphone users. Mobile games dominate the country’s overall gaming industry by spending, accounting for 77.9% of total revenue, per market intelligence firm Niko Partners. The firm also estimates that the country’s mobile gaming revenue will grow from $640 million in 2023 to $1.1 billion by 2028.

Krafton, which saw 119.3% year-over-year growth in its net profit last year to roughly $889 million (KRW 1.3 trillion), sees India as a promising and key market to continue its success. However, most of the growth from India has so far come from its flagship title for the local audience, Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), which hit its highest-ever sales last year and surpassed 200 million downloads.

The company has other titles, including Bullet Echo India, Road To Valor, and CookieRun. However, they have not yet helped repeat the success story of the battle royale game, a localized version of PUBG.

The deal could help Krafton move beyond BGMI and explore new avenues of success, including cricket and other sports games, to attract new gamers.

In 2020, Indian digital entertainment and technology company JetSynthesys acquired a 100% stake in Nautilus Mobile. That was followed by Krafton’s strategic investment of $5.4 million in 2022.

Sohn told TechCrunch that while Nautilus’ potential was the reason for the initial investment, Krafton found its role as a minority stakeholder limiting in terms of supporting the studio’s content development. Gaining a controlling stake, he said, would allow for deeper collaboration and greater involvement in core development efforts with Nautilus.

“We strongly believe that cricket games have a lot of potential. And we want to work with Nautilus to make the best effort possible to really realize the potential of this market, not just in India, but in other cricket-playing nations and other countries, which are becoming more active in cricket,” said Nihansh Bhat, corporate lead development at Krafton India, told TechCrunch.

JetSynthesys will remain a “significant minority” investor in Nautilus Mobile and will continue to work with the studio on areas, including eSports. The company has already worked with the studio to help partner its Real Cricket game with cricket teams, including those associated with the Indian Premier League, the world’s most lucrative cricket tournament in India.

“We will, over a long period of time, want to look at, of course, increased revenue, increased user base, improved retention, all the usual things, and hopefully new deals as well,” Bhat said on the question of how Krafton would measure the deal’s success post its completion.

Until now, Krafton has invested over $200 million in India, excluding the Nautilus Mobile.

Krafton’s 20% investments in India have been in gaming and gaming-adjacent companies, though the company also invested in Indian startups, including the payments platform Cashfree, audio platform Kuku FM, and influencer marketing platform One Impression. It also backed funds, including gaming-focused Lumikai and IMM Investment’s first India fund.

“We are looking at the opportunity for acquisitions, moderate investments, and even business collaboration with notable players in the country,” Sohn said.

Nautilus will join the 14 other game studios Krafton operates in markets around the world.