Gaming
Gaming veteran Rahul Razdan launches Giga to blur entertainment boundaries
MUMBAI: Rahul Razdan, the architect behind some of India’s most audacious digital ventures, has emerged from Reliance Jio’s corridors to launch Giga, his latest gambit to reshape gaming and entertainment. The 51-year-old, who spent nearly a decade building JioChat into a multimedia powerhouse, now promises to deploy artificial intelligence to revolutionise how humans engage with games.
Razdan’s pedigree reads like a who’s who of India’s digital transformation. As president of Tencent’s Indian operations between 2012 and 2014, he orchestrated WeChat’s meteoric rise, briefly dethroning established messaging giants. The app’s coup de grâce came via an audacious marketing blitz featuring Bollywood stars and a record-breaking QR code cake made from 7,500 individual cakes.
His tenure at Jio proved equally theatrical. JioChat became the first app to bear the Jio brand, even predating the network itself. Under his stewardship, the platform birthed India’s pioneering vertical video ecosystem and hosted the award-winning KBC Play Along game, where users played alongside television’s prime-time quiz show in real time.
Before his corporate conquests, Razdan co-founded ibibo.com, crafting what he claims was India’s first internet business with multiple revenue streams firmly embedded. The venture, backed by South Africa’s Naspers and China’s Tencent, pioneered social gaming with local flavour and real-money integration.
Giga’s cryptic website teases that “the 400 pound gorilla is coming soon,” offering little beyond Razdan’s promise to blur traditional entertainment boundaries. His track record suggests punters should pay attention. After all, this is the same executive who recently pivoted to filmmaking at 51, producing an award-winning animated short that swept international festivals from London to Buenos Aires.
Armed with degrees from the School of Planning and Architecture and IIM Indore, plus two decades navigating India’s digital rapids, Razdan appears intent on proving that gaming’s next act has only just begun.
Gaming
MTG gaming chief Benninghoff joins NODWIN board as esports firm primes for IPO
The Gurugram-based esports firm is pursuing a public listing, has returned to profitability and is growing revenues by 42 per cent
GURUGRAM: NODWIN Gaming is moving fast. The Gurugram-based gaming and esports company has launched a pre-IPO fundraising round, appointed UBS as lead adviser for both the round and a subsequent public listing, and landed a heavyweight board director, all in one go.
The new board member is Arnd Benninghoff, executive vice president of gaming at Stockholm-listed Modern Times Group (MTG), who has overseen the group’s strategic investments and portfolio growth since 2014. He is no stranger to building things: Benninghoff has founded and built fifteen companies, served as chief digital officer at ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG, managing director of SevenVentures, and chief executive of Holtzbrinck eLAB. He began his career as a journalist at Deutsche Presse Agentur and various TV networks, holds a Diplom-Kaufmann in business and administration from the University of Münster, and previously sat on the board of Edgeware AB.
The numbers back the ambition
NODWIN is not pitching a story without substance. The company has returned to EBITDA profitability and posted a 42 per cent year-on-year revenue surge, reaching $58.5m in the first nine months of FY2026. The pre-IPO round will combine a primary issuance to fund global expansion through organic growth and acquisitions, alongside a secondary sale to give existing shareholders some liquidity.
Akshat Rathee, co-founder and managing director of NODWIN Gaming, said Benninghoff understands “the entire lifecycle of the gaming and media ecosystem, from the boots-on-the-ground reality of building startups to the strategic complexity of managing multi-billion dollar global portfolios.”
Benninghoff, for his part, said the company “sits at the intersection of sports, entertainment, and technology, making it one of the most exciting players in the global gaming landscape today.”
A portfolio built for the global south
Founded in 2014 by Rathee and Gautam Virk, NODWIN has quietly assembled one of the more compelling esports portfolios outside the Western hemisphere. Its properties include DreamHack India and Comic Con India, and it recently acquired StarLadder, the Ukraine-based tournament organiser behind premier events in CS:GO and Dota 2. The company also serves as a long-term strategic marketing partner for the Evolution Championship Series (EVO), the world’s most prominent fighting game tournament, helping push it into new geographies.
Its geographic focus spans South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Backers include Nazara Technologies, KRAFTON, Sony Group Corporation, JetSynthesys, and the founders’ investment vehicle Good Game Investments.
What comes next
With UBS running the books, a board freshly reinforced with European media and gaming expertise, and revenue heading in the right direction, NODWIN is laying the groundwork deliberately. The esports industry has burned investors before with big promises and thin margins. NODWIN’s return to profitability, combined with a real portfolio of owned intellectual properties across gaming, music and youth culture, gives it a more credible runway than most. The IPO clock is now ticking.
