iWorld
Glance buys out gaming firm Gambit in NFT push
Mumbai: InMobi’s consumer internet division Glance has announced the acquisition of Indian gaming firm Gambit Sports. This will accelerate Singapore-based Glance’s ambition of building the biggest platform for NFT-based live gaming experiences for gen-Z, across markets, it said.
The acquisition brings together Glance’s scale and lock screen-centric innovation with Gambit’s expertise and understanding of the gaming ecosystem. Glance Games – Glance’s lock screen gaming platform – has over 45 million monthly active users across Asia. Close to 70 per cent are in the age group of 18 to 34, while over 40 per cent of its gamers are female, the company shared.
Gambit has deep experience in building platforms with high engagement and monetisation. Co-founded in 2015 by Yashashvi Takallapalli, Gaurav Konar, Ranaveer Sankieneni, and Deepak Venkatramani, the company owns and operates Nostragamus (Nostra Pro) – a popular gaming platform with fantasy sports, poker, rummy, quiz, and hyper-casual games. Over 100 million games have been played on the Nostragamus platform, and it has close to 10 million registered users.
Glance will leverage Gambit’s expertise to launch engaging live gaming experiences including tournaments, game shows, game streaming and multi-player games on lock screen. Gambit will also enable Glance to launch multiple casual-to-midcore games that can be enjoyed by diverse sets of gamers. In the coming quarters, Glance also plans to launch NFTs in live gaming. This will potentially enable creators, streamers and developers to monetise through assets and NFT-based game creation while giving gamers unique experiences that they love.
“Gaming is the most exciting content category across the world today and Gen-Z spends more time on gaming than on any other activity online,” said InMobi co-founder and Glance president and COO Piyush Shah. “Giving users live, connected, interactive gaming experiences on the lock screen is key to Glance’s vision of building the world’s largest live internet platform. We also aim to launch creator-led NFTs for live gaming which will generate unique ‘play-to-earn’ and ‘play-to-own’ possibilities for the entire gaming ecosystem.”
“We have already started seeing great traction for live gaming on Glance. For instance, over 10 million users watch live game streams on Glance every week now. With Glance and Gambit’s combined strengths and our belief that there is a game for every person, we envision doubling the number of monthly active gamers on Glance Games in the next year,” added Gambit co-founder and CEO Yashashvi Takallapalli.
In February 2022, Glance had signed an agreement to raise $200 million funding from Jio Platforms to accelerate its global expansion. The company also entered into a business partnership with Jio through which Glance’s lock screen platform will be integrated into JioPhone Next smartphones. This integration is expected to further boost the reach of Glance Games.
iWorld
Tips Music CEO Hari Nair to step down
Girish Taurani and Sushant Dalmia to jointly steer the company as the hunt for a new chief begins
MUMBAI: A leadership shuffle is under way at Tips Music. Hari Nair, the company’s chief executive, will step down on April 30 as the music label begins the search for a successor.
The company said Girish Taurani, executive director, and Sushant Dalmia, chief financial officer, will jointly oversee operations during the transition while the board identifies a permanent replacement.
Nair joined Tips Music in 2023 and set about reshaping the veteran music label into a more digital, data-led enterprise. During his tenure, the company secured licensing and partnership deals with global platforms including Sony Music Publishing and TikTok, while renewing agreements with Warner Music Group.
Drawing on earlier experience in technology and entertainment, including a stint at ByteDance, Nair pushed the organisation towards a performance-driven culture. He built a brand partnerships division and introduced proprietary software systems aimed at strengthening digital distribution and data capabilities.
Kumar Taurani, chairman and managing director, credited Nair with embedding a data-led culture within the company and driving revenue growth in line with shareholder commitments.
In his resignation note, Nair said that after helping transition the label into a modern, digitally focused and process-driven organisation, the time had come to pursue his next leadership challenge.
The leadership change comes as the broader Tips Films group shows signs of financial stabilisation. In the third quarter of FY26 the company reported a net loss of Rs 2.86 crore, narrowing sharply from Rs 14.2 crore in the previous quarter. For the nine months ended December, losses stood at Rs 12.37 crore.
Yet revenue told a more volatile story. Income from operations slid to Rs 4 crore in Q3 FY26 from Rs 56 crore in the preceding quarter, taking total operating income to Rs 4.56 crore.
For a company built on a catalogue of more than 34,000 tracks and decades of Bollywood hits, the next chief will inherit both a digital engine and a volatile music market. The playlist may be familiar, but the next act at Tips Music is only just beginning.
