Krafton hikes India bet with new $670M fund

Krafton, the South Korean gaming company behind hit titles such as PUBG and Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), is launching a growth investment fund focused on India, stepping up its push into the world’s largest internet user base.

Called the Unicorn Growth Fund, the investment vehicle is a collaboration between Krafton and South Korean internet conglomerate Naver, and investor Mirae Asset. It aims to deploy up to ₹60 billion (around $669.3 million) over four years, Krafton confirmed to TechCrunch.

The fund, which will be managed by Mirae Asset Venture India, is expected to be established in January and begin operations with an initial size of more than ₹30 billion (about $334.6 million). Krafton will contribute ₹12.3 billion (approximately $137.2 million) at the first close, the company said.

Naver’s capital commitment is expected to be “broadly comparable” to Krafton’s $137 million investment, a Krafton spokesperson told TechCrunch. The fund will not operate with rigid country-allocation thresholds, and typical investment sizes are expected to range between $10 million and $30 million, the spokesperson said.

Krafton said investments through the new fund would primarily be treated as financial positions rather than strategic bets, though the level of engagement with portfolio companies could vary depending on the opportunity and long-term potential of each business.

To date, Krafton has invested more than $200 million in India, backing companies in the gaming, content and fintech spaces. Recent investments include fintech Cashfree and venture fund IMM Investment, alongside earlier bets on gaming and content platforms such as Nodwin Gaming, Loco, Pratilipi, and Kuku FM. The company also launched a gaming incubator in India in 2023, and acquired a controlling stake in Indian gaming studio Nautilus Mobile for $14 million earlier this year.

Krafton’s expansion in India has not been without setbacks. New Delhi banned BGMI, the company’s flagship local title, in 2022, before allowing it to return in 2023 following a three-month trial approval. Krafton subsequently announced a $150 million investment commitment in the country.

BGMI, which has surpassed 240 million downloads, launched in 2021 as a revamped, localized version of PUBG Mobile, another popular title that was banned by the Indian government in mid-2020 over national security concerns. Since then, Krafton has made a series of operational changes in the country — including cutting ties with Tencent as its publisher and migrating its India servers to Microsoft’s Azure cloud — to address regulatory concerns.

With the new fund, Krafton is looking to extend its India strategy beyond gaming, channeling capital into a wider set of technology startups as it seeks to build a long-term presence in one of Asia’s fastest-growing digital markets.