Gaming firm Nazara invests in social contest platform Bakbuck

Bakbuck, a vernacular social contests platform operated by Khichadi Technologies Pvt. Ltd. has raised funding from mobile game developer Nazara Technologies Ltd.

Bakbuck, which is currently available in Hindi, plans to expand to 10 more Indian languages soon, a company statement said. It didn't disclose the amount it raised. 

“Nazara has successfully built a very strong network of younger audience through its investments and offerings in sports-based mobile games and is now looking at building the largest and most secure platform for virtual kitty parties where housewives can interact with each other freely and securely and enjoy a multitude of entertainment options,” said Manish Agarwal, chief executive officer at Nazara.

“Bakbuck will help aggregate millions of Indian women on a common platform,” he added.

Bakbuck was launched in August 2018 by Abhinay Jain (CEO) along with Shashank Kakrecha (CTO) and Rohit Naidu (CXO). The company claims to have grown its user base five-fold in the past few months. It didn't disclose the number of users it has.

Bakbuck differentiates itself from other content platforms with its focused social contesting offering and diverse user base consisting of more than 70% females from non-metro cities.

It uses technology and immersive user interface to change popular traditional Indian games such as “Antakshari”, “Saanp Seedhi” and “Tol mol ke Bol” into online contests that users can play anytime, with anyone.

Bakbuck offers women a safe and social platform to compete and participate in skill-based social contests and casual games. Additionally, winners get the opportunity to claim gifts of their choice or donate for a noble cause on the app itself in exchange for points earned via different games.

Naraza was established in 1999 by Nitish Mittersain and has acquired mobile games across emerging markets such as India, West Asia, Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Its projects range from value addition to distribution, while its operations comprise subscription, freemium and e-sports businesses.

The company has invested in other mobile gaming companies in the sports vertical such as Halaplay, Mastermind Sports Ltd and Moonglabs Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Nazara has taken a majority stake in Next Wave Multimedia Pvt. Ltd and Nodwin Gaming Pvt. Ltd last year.

Recent deals in vernacular and social content segment:

• March 2019: Bengaluru-based local language and news aggregator DailyHunt raised $173 million in a round led by New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs’ hedge fund.
• Hyderabad-based GIF-searching platform Gifskey raised $1 million (Rs 7.1 crore) in a seed round led by Kstart, the seed fund arm of Kalaari Capital. GIF is a computer file that supports both animated and static images.
• February 2019: Video content platform Awaaz raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Matrix Partners.