iWorld
Paytm launches android Mini app store
MUMBAI: Paytm has launched its android mini app store to support Indian developers in taking their innovative products to the masses. Mini apps are a custom-built mobile website that gives users an app-like experience without having to download them. This would greatly benefit millions of citizens to save their limited data and phone memory.
Paytm is providing listing and distribution of these mini-apps within its app free of charge. For payments, developers can let their users choose from Paytm Wallet, Paytm Payments Bank, UPI, net-banking, and cards.
Paytm has created the digital infrastructure to enable small developers and businesses to set up low-cost, quick-to-build mini-apps that can be encoded using HTML and javascript technologies. The company provides Paytm wallet, Paytm
Payments Bank account and UPI at zero charges and levies a 2 per cent charge for other instruments like credit cards. As a local Indian app store, it aims to drive the Atmanirbhar Bharat mission while keeping the digital consumer spends within the country.
Paytm Mini app store offers direct access to discover, browse and pay features without downloading or installing separate apps. More than 300 app-based service providers such as Decathalon, Ola, Park+, Rapido, Netmeds, 1MG, Domino's Pizza, FreshMenu, NoBroker have already joined the program. It comes with a developer dashboard for analytics, payments collection along with various marketing tools to engage with the users. This app store has been running in beta with select users and witnessed over 12 million visits in the month of September.
Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said the mini app store creates an opportunity for every Indian app developer. "It empowers our young Indian developers to leverage our reach and payments to build new innovative services,” he added.
Sharma guaranteed that for Paytm users, the mini app store will be a seamless experience that doesn't require any separate download, and where they can use their preferred payment option without hassle."
The company believes that through this initiative India would be able to build a sustainable and thriving local technology ecosystem that resonates with the true spirit of Atmanirbhar Bharat. Growing technology companies will get the opportunity to rely on Paytm to contribute towards the overall growth of the Indian economy and create employment.
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.
