Krafton doubles down on India with another $250M bet beyond gaming

Krafton, the South Korean gaming institution down titles including PUBG and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), plans to put different $250 cardinal successful India implicit the adjacent 3 to 4 years arsenic it pushes beyond gaming into AI, robotics, and heavy tech.

Announced Friday, the caller committedness volition instrumentality Krafton’s full planned concern successful India to much than $500 million, including the implicit $250 cardinal it had already invested successful the state since 2021. The funds besides travel successful summation to Krafton’s committedness to a $670 cardinal India-focused maturation fund it unveiled with South Korean net conglomerate Naver and capitalist Mirae Asset successful December 2025. At the time, Krafton said it would lend astir $137 cardinal astatine the fund’s archetypal close. The caller $250 cardinal pledge is abstracted from the maturation fund, the institution confirmed to TechCrunch.

India has go a cardinal marketplace for Krafton, giving the gaming steadfast entree to the world’s astir populous country, with much than a cardinal net subscribers and implicit 700 cardinal smartphone users. Krafton initially built its India concern astir gaming, led by BGMI, a revamped and localized mentation of PUBG that has surpassed 260 cardinal downloads. In caller years, the institution has besides utilized investments successful Indian startups to broaden its concern beyond games.

Krafton’s tally successful India has not ever been smooth. The Indian authorities banned PUBG Mobile successful 2020, on with hundreds of Chinese-linked apps, arsenic tensions betwixt New Delhi and Beijing escalated. Krafton stepped successful aft that and introduced BGMI successful 2021. The institution dropped Tencent Games arsenic the game’s steadfast successful India and moved its India servers to Microsoft’s Azure cloud, changes that came arsenic Krafton worked to code New Delhi’s concerns.

However, successful 2022, BGMI was itself banned successful India, earlier the national authorities allowed it to instrumentality connected a three-month proceedings ground the pursuing year. Krafton has continued to physique astir the franchise since its instrumentality and plans to motorboat BGMI Lite successful India by the extremity of 2026.

Despite the aboriginal setbacks, Krafton continued to put successful India and has truthful acold backed astir 18 companies, including 4 to 5 gaming studios, the institution confirmed to TechCrunch. Its investments see Nodwin Gaming, Loco, Pratilipi, Kuku FM, and One Impression, among others.

The caller concern committedness comes aft Krafton president Byung Gyu Chang met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi successful New Delhi earlier connected Friday. The 2 discussed opportunities for India and South Korea to enactment much intimately crossed gaming, technology, and different emerging sectors, Krafton said.

Krafton has besides been gathering retired its section operations. Last year, it acquired Pune-based Nautilus Mobile, the workplace down the Real Cricket franchise. The institution besides precocious launched KIGI Academy, an industry-academia programme aimed astatine grooming endowment successful crippled improvement and integer creation.