Gaming
Segwise’s AI puts a creative spin on Ad performance for game publishers
MUMBAI: When it comes to digital ads, knowing what works is half the battle. Segwise, the AI-first User Acquisition (UA) platform, has unveiled its latest game-changer Creative Analytics and Insights, an AI-powered tool that dissects ad creatives to pinpoint what’s boosting engagement and what’s dragging performance down.
For mobile game and app publishers, the struggle to manually track and analyse creative elements like backgrounds, characters, emotional hooks, and calls-to-action is a time-consuming puzzle. Segwise’s multimodal AI eliminates the guesswork by automatically tagging creative components across all major ad networks, helping publishers optimise their ads for better returns.
“We believe AI will soon be the backbone of every UA team,” said Segwise co-founder and CEO Brijesh Bharadwaj. “We built this platform to automate the tedious parts of campaign analysis so marketers can focus on strategy and scaling their ROAS.”
Adding more firepower to Segwise’s vision is PeopleFun Games former CEO Carol Miu who joins as an advisor. “Better monitoring and granular creative analytics can mean millions in ad savings. Segwise is building a UA platform that makes this effortless, and I’m excited to be part of the journey,” she said.
The Creative Analytics AI Agent compiles and analyses creative data across networks and geographies, revealing trends, detecting creative fatigue, and ensuring UA teams spend smarter, not harder. It’s the second addition to Segwise’s fast-growing AI-driven UA platform, following its AI Campaign Monitoring and Alerting Agent, which was voted number one Marketing Product of the Week on Product Hunt last year.
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.
