MPL’s Blast Announces Investment in Gaming Studio XSQUADS
MPL takes the publishing arm of its Blast into its first investment. The Surat-based gaming studio XSQUADS has taken $2 million from the publishing arm, Blast, in which the firm gets a 20 per cent stake at $10 million valuation. This marks the first investment made by Blast, the publishing arm of MPL, which launched this new journey of bringing new games from global and indie gaming studios to India only last month.
Blast by MPL Makes Debut Investment
XSQUADS, founded by Jemesh Lakhani, is known for its flagship game ScarFall, which has proved itself to be India-focused battle royale game with realistic maps inspired by places such as Mumbai and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. For diverse user groups, the game comes with survival, respawnable, and TDM modes. With this deal, XSQUADS will gain 75 million users on MPL and thus expand the breadth of its distribution network multi-fold.
This investment, therefore, is another step towards the more general vision set out for MPL when it comes to independent game developers and scaling offerings in India. Blast- the publishing arm of MPL- has been established to empower game developers around the world in the free-to-play space because that particular genre has gained adoption in the Indian market. It is interested in this space because its GameDuell has done remarkably well since launch.
In the last five years, MPL picked up four startups—Good Game Exchange, GameDuell, GamingMonk, and Crevise Technologies—that added weight to its offerings in gaming. The latest investment in XSQUADS is one such milestone that gives an impression about a new direction for MPL's strategy to nurture the broader gaming ecosystem in India.
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Financially, too, MPL has proved its mettle against the challenges posed by regulatory frameworks. In FY24, its operating revenue surged by 22.2% to Rs 1,068 crore, and losses decreased by a whopping 21% to Rs 375 crore. Besides, MPL also entered into EBITDA-positive territory by showing an operating cash flow of Rs 157 crore last fiscal year, which clearly signifies growth prospects in the gaming arena.
