Nitish Mittersain - The Game Theorist

The CEO, founder and joint MD of gaming unicorn takes us through his journey from being a gamer to building a large diversified gaming company. He is on Entrepreneur India's Digital Cover for February 2023

- S SHANTHI AND KABIR SINGH BHANDARI

They say blessed are those who can follow their passion and turn that into their profession. Nitish Mittersain, CEO, founder and joint MD, Nazara Technologies is one of those few lucky people who not only converted his love for gaming into his career, but built a large business around it. That too, when smartphones had not arrived and nobody else was thinking of gaming as a business in India. "I started coding games when I was seven. So, it became a lifelong passion for me. I used to see my friends and myself spend a lot of time in the computer centre playing games with each other. And it struck me that gaming has to become a large business in India. So, I jumped right into it without thinking too much. But, only when I really started the business, spent a few years in it, I realized the challenges of starting up a business," he said.

Mittersain was also lucky in having the support and encouragement of his parents. Despite gaming being a new sector back then, they pushed him to give it a try. That is how Mittersain launched Nazara Technologies in 2020 when he was still studying in college.

Cut to 2023 when there is a huge global market downturn and he still stays as confident and fearless as the first day of starting up. The gaming unicorn has reported a 31 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit to INR 22.4 Cr in the third quarter of financial year 2022-23 (FY23) from INR 17.1 Cr in the year-ago quarter. Revenue from operations surged nearly 70 per cent to INR 314.8 Cr in Q3 FY23 from INR 185.8 Cr in the December quarter of the previous year. Income from other avenues also nearly tripled to INR 11.5 Cr from INR 4 Cr in Q3 FY22.

Over the years, Nazara has developed a fairly conservative approach towards risk-taking and the way it approaches business. In fact, downturn in markets is usually the time when Nazara shines through.