Gaming
Lumikai & Loco partner to host Game Night on 26 Nov
New Delhi: Gaming has emerged as one of the extremely promising categories of the future and is entering into the mainstream. Starting from equipment manufacturers to game creators and gamers, the industry is expanding rapidly with every passing day. Youth is now beginning to opt for gaming as a full-time career and agencies are now working very closely with brands and game developers to create a synergy.
The category has created a lot of excitement in the marketing community. Multiple brands across categories are now utilizing games as a medium to connect with their audiences as they understand that people, especially youth, are spending their time gaming. The category is slowly catching up pace in the media mix of a brand.
In the last few years, India has emerged as one of the top five gaming countries and most of the players prefer mobile over a personal computer. Interestingly, India is a mobile-first gaming market. Today, gamers include both males and females. Several experts have also suggested that the average age of a gamer in India is less than 20 years. There is a lot of younger audience and it is the freemium model that is leading to the growth in India.
With an idea to expand the gaming ecosystem, Lumikai and Loco have organized a Game Night on 25 Nov for gamers, start-up founders, indie studios, and creators for a chat about gaming, entrepreneurship, building content and India’s growing games ecosystem
The night is hosted by BeYouNick (YouTuber) along with Justin Keeling and Salone Sehgal (Lumikai), Anirudh Pandita (Loco), Ashish Aggarwal (Google India), Sameer Pitalwala (Epic Games), Anurag Khurana (PayTm First Games), Poornima.S (Zynga), and Oliver Jones (Bombay Play).
Tune in live on Loco on 26 November at 5 pm.
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.
