Gaming
Mumbai Comic Con 2025 levels up, plays host to epic Indie Game Utsav
MUMBAI: Hold onto your joysticks, folks—Mumbai Comic Con 2025 is gearing up to be a high-score event! Forget Batman and anime cosplay; this year, indie games are the real superheroes. With the inaugural edition of Indie Game Utsav, the spotlight’s firmly set on made-in-India PC and console games. It’s time for homegrown games to finally drop the mic—or controller—in style.
Set for 12-13 April 2025, at Jio World Convention Centre, Indie Game Utsav brings together over 40 stellar indie games from India, ready to dazzle audiences at Mumbai Comic Con. Backed by big-hitters like Xbox, Xsolla, Specter, and Nodwin Gaming, the festival also boasts IGDA India as its community partner, making it a gamer’s paradise on steroids.
Given India’s surging gamer base—132 million on PC platform Steam alone and PC gaming contributing 22 per cent to India’s video game revenues—Indie Game Utsav is perfectly timed. It’s not just about showing off some shiny new pixels; it’s about nurturing India’s thriving PC and console gaming culture.
The brains behind this gaming extravaganza is Avichal Singh, makers of the smash hit Raji: An Ancient Epic. Singh explained, “Indie Game Utsav wants to pave the way for upcoming quality indie games from India to find success just like Raji, we are aiming to resolve long existing B2B and B2C problems for indies. I’m grateful for Nodwin’s support to help us celebrate India’s best and brightest indie developers at Mumbai Comic Con.”
Nodwin Gaming co-founder & MD Akshat Rathee echoed, “Nodwin started with two guys who just loved PC gaming, so supporting indie developers feels like coming full circle. We’ve always believed in the incredible talent of Indian indie game creators and that their work should be easily accessible to gamers. Indie Game Utsav at Comic Con is just the beginning—one of many steps towards making gaming more open and exciting for everyone.”
To help Indian games level up internationally, Indie Game Utsav is also connecting local developers with top-tier global publishers like Krafton, Garena, Epic Games, and more. On top of that, special digital meetups will see publishers such as Devolver Digital, Rawfury, and Plugindigital ready to scout the next big gaming sensation.
And that’s not all—various pre-event initiatives are lined up to sharpen the skills of indie devs, from intimate sessions with Rawfury and Epic Games veterans to casual mixers and global showcases through MGN Indie Game Events in China.
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.
