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With the availability of fast internet and smartphones, online gaming is gaining much popularity in India, especially among the youth. With this increasing craze, many gaming companies are coming up with engaging and entertaining gaming options.
Gameskraft, a Bangalore-based startup in the online gaming sector is all set to bring a world-class gaming experience to Indian users. This startup, launched in 2017, is driven by the vision to establish Gameskraft Technologies as a leading gaming company in India. StartupTalky interviewed Gameskraft founder Prithvi Singh. Let's see what he has to say, what Gameskraft actually is, and how it is transforming the world of online gaming in this StartupTalky article ahead!
Startup Name GamesKraft
- Headquarter-Bangalore
- Founder-Prithvi Singh
- Sector-Online Gaming
- Founded-June 2017
- Group CEO-Vikas Taneja
- Registered Entity Name-Gameskraft Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
- Operating Revenue-$13.49 mn+ (over Rs 100 crore in FY20)
- Website-gameskraft.in
- Contact-play@gameskraft.in
About Gameskraft
Gameskraft is an online gaming company founded in Bengaluru, which develops web and mobile games. The company is hailed as India's first gaming company that gives instant cash rewards. The ISO-certified gaming platform is lauded to be instrumental in building and scaling bellwether technology startups, including Goibibo, Blinkit, Myntra, and Flipkart.
Nostragamus, Rummytime, Pocket52, Rummyculture, and Gamezy are some of the gaming platforms that Gameskraft boasts of, all of which are based on reward systems and use real cash. Gamezy was launched by Gameskraft in 2019, through which it entered the fantasy cricket and football segment. Besides users can play games like Carrom, Fruit Slice, Fruit Dart, Sheep Fight, Ludo, Snake, Run Boy Run, Quiz, Bricks, and Bubble Burst on Gamezy. Players can play the games free for practice and later can opt for playing these games with real money and real players.
Gameskraft - Industry
The investment of market leaders such as Alibaba, Tencent, Nazara, and Youzu, has contributed to the growth of the Indian gaming industry. According to a joint report released by Google and KPMG, the online gaming industry in India was projected to reach $1 billion by 2021, which is around $1.5 bn now on July 1, 2022. The estimated number of employees in the gaming industry across India will be more than 40,000 by 2022, which is almost around the same number.
India boasts of being home to the second-largest gaming market across the globe and has an annual growth rate of 38%. Over 300 mn mobile users play online games in India, which is around 1/4th of the total population of the country.
Gameskraft - Founders and Team
Prithvi Singh founded Gameskraft in 2017. The company has declared Ramesh Prabhu as the CFO of the gaming startup, who has taken up the role since August 2018. Harish Rawat serves as the Senior Vice President of Marketing of the business, while Vikas Taneja is known as the Group CEO of Gameskraft.
Prithvi Raj Singh
Gameskraft founder Prithvi Raj Singh is a BTech. Computer Science engineering graduate from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology. Prior to GamesKraft, he worked with companies like Grofers, where he had worked as the Staff Engineer; Ignite Technologies as the Chief Architect; CA Technologies as a Manager, and Trilogy, where he had worked as a Technical Associate. Prithvi had already gained knowledge across different domains including large-scale and enterprise applications.
Prithvi Singh
Prithvi Singh has always been fascinated with computers and this is why he chose Computer Science in his college. He mentioned this in a Youtube interview, along with discussing much more about his journey and the experiences he had as a first-time investor. Here's the interview below:
Other core members who have been part of Gameskraft since its inception are Punya, Akhilesh, Abhishek, and Alankar. The company has last hired 7 new leaders to empower the leadership of Gameskraft, as of May 17, 2022. The hiring includes:
- Amrit Kiran Singh for the Chief Strategy Advisor position
- Joyjyoti Misra as the Group General Counsel
- Nitin Nahata as the Chief Human Resources Officer
- Captain Shakil Ahmed for the position of the Head, Organisational Resilience & REWS
- Chetan Sridhar More as the Head, Public Policy & Corporate Affairs
- Vimal Chawla for the Group Company Secretary & Head of Compliance position
- Rishi Wadhera as the Head, Corporate Communications & CSR
- The company operates with over 400 employees who work from 2 dedicated Gameskraft Bangalore offices.
Gameskraft - Startup Story
Prithvi started showing interest in gaming at a young age. During his college years, he spent a considerable amount of time playing video games. Around the same time, he realized that the market is mostly dominated by international companies and the games are not specific to the Indian market. So, he wanted to develop games, especially for Indian users.
"With Gameskraft, I wanted to bring the Indian context to the online gaming space. The games we develop are mainly targeted at Indian users. Since India’s gaming industry has a huge potential, I was pretty confident about Gameskraft" quotes Gameskraft owner Prithvi Singh.
Gameskraft - Mission and Vision
Gameskraft was launched with the aim to create the "next big revolution in the e-gaming industry."
“Gameskraft's vision is to be the most loved online gaming company of the 21st century using best-in-class technology. We are here to create a flawless user experience like no other contemporary apps in the market.”
Gameskraft - Name, Tagline and Logo
"We wanted a name for our company that is catchy and easy to remember, so we came up with Gameskraft.", said rummyculture owner Prithvi Singh.
Gameskraft's tagline is ‘India’s fastest-growing gaming company’.
Gameskraft - Business and Revenue Model
GamesKraft is built on a user-oriented business model and can thus be summed up as a business operating in a B2b as well as a B2c model. Gameskraft earns revenue by collecting service charges on the cash games. Non-cash games are free mostly, but some games have entry restrictions.
Gameskraft - Customer Acquisition
Initially, word-of-mouth publicity helped Gameskraft to create a name. Gameskraft’s referral program also helped the company to attract new customers. The company also offers welcome bonuses to new users. During the Cricket world cup 2019, Gameskraft launched an exclusive World Cup ‘scratch card’ offer for the Rummyculture users.
As part of this app-only (available on both Android and iOS) offer, users stand a chance to win a prize every hour. However, only mobile verified users can claim this offer and they are eligible for a maximum of 8 scratch cards a day.
Under this ‘scratch card’ offer, Rummyculture subscribers can access one scratch card per hour. Each card will be activated for one hour when the match starts. Users can make a claim only during this period. Additionally, Gameskraft recently presented the official World Cup 2019 Team India jersey to Rummyculture players with the highest add-on cash every day from June 1st-5th. The platform has also added an exclusive World Cup leader board to Rummyculture’s platform and users with the highest points tally will receive attractive prizes following the completion of the World Cup 2019. Rummyculture is now available on the iOS platforms too.
"We took a customer-centric approach from the beginning and it has worked really well for us. Customers have grown to like our games because of their transparency and user-centricity.", said Gameskraft founder Prithvi Singh.
Gameskraft - Challenges
Gameskraft’s journey has been very exciting, but we came across several obstacles in the initial months.
The most challenging part for the company was retaining a steady customer base. When Gameskraft first started, it mainly focused on a good interface. However, over time, it realized that there are many other important factors. The company constantly keeps on researching and making changes to its platform to meet customer expectations. Rummyculture’s first multi-player tournament didn’t go as per plan, mostly due to technical errors. It was a real eye-opener for Gameskraft and they learned from the mistake and made changes accordingly.
Another challenge that startup faced initially was in making payment of rewards to its users. The payment system was not automated.
"Every day after 3 pm, I used to take a printout of all the withdrawal requests and go to the bank with a checkbook. I deposited the check and gave the Bank Manager a list of account numbers and the respective amounts that had to be deposited" Prithvi recalls.
Thankfully, now it has banking partners and the payment process is fully automated.
Gameskraft - Competitors
Many online gaming companies are now operating in India. Some top gaming companies are:
- 2pi Interactive
- 99 Games
- Apar games
- CreatioSoft
- Dhruva Interactive
As noted by Prithvi, Gameskraft is a new player in the online gaming space. The Gameskraft focus is currently on its latest offering Gamezy. The Gamezy owner, Gameskraft has forayed with the former into the fantasy gaming space earlier in 2019.
"What makes us stand out is that we do extensive market research before rolling out any game. We take regular feedback from our customers to make improvements in various areas – whether it’s the UI of the game or the format."
Gameskraft - Funding
Gameskraft doesn’t have any formal investors at present. It was the founder of the company, Prithvi Singh, who arranged some amount of funding from his family and friends to start Gameskraft.
Gameskraft - Growth and Revenues
Gameskraft has been making safe gaming experiences ever since it was founded. The company has also been hailed as:
- India’s fastest-growing gaming company
- A Guinness World Record holder for conducting the world’s largest rummy tournament
- Gameskraft boasts of having crossed 1 million downloads
- It has a team of 400+ gaming enthusiasts
Gameskraft has 2 offices, both of which are located in Bangalore
The operating revenue range of GamesKraft has been reported to be over INR 500 crore for FY21. The book net worth of GamesKraft increased by 322.01% and its EBITDA also increased by 235.01% during the same fiscal.
Gameskraft - Advisors and Mentors
My family and friends have given me constant support throughout the journey. Whenever I need advice, I turn to them.
Gameskraft - Partnerships
Gameskraft has partnered with Disney + Hotstar on September 22, 2021, to strengthen its brand recognition among the viewers.
Gameskraft - Future Plans
In less than two years of time, Gameskraft’s Rummy culture evolved as India’s fastest-growing cash rummy platform, with 1 million active players on its website and Android application.
Their newly launched product Gamezy, a fantasy gaming platform for cricket enthusiasts in the country has received an overwhelming response from the customers. Gameskraft is planning to strengthen its foothold in the fantasy gaming space. The skills-based esports and entertainment platform has declared its ambitions to scale for the future while hiring 7 senior executives, thereby strengthening its leadership team in May 2022!
FAQs
What is Gameskraft?
Gameskraft is an online gaming platform founded in 2017 by Prithvi Singh, which offers an array of interesting games for Indian players. The company takes pride in being India's first gaming company to give instant cash rewards to the players. The ISO-certified gaming platform also boasts of organising the world's largest online rummy tournament and has its name in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Who is Gamezy founder?
The Gamezy founder is none other than Prithvi Raj Singh, who founded Gameskraft.
What is the Gamezy valuation?
The Gamezy valuation is still not assessed but the platform boasts of having 1 crore plus+ verified players.
Who is the owner of Gamezy and RummyCulture?
Gameskraft is the owner of Gamezy and RummyCulture.
Is Gameskraft good and legal?
Gameskraft brings in trusted games. It is also recognized by the ISO certification.
