On Friday, Modern Times Group(MTG) has announced that it has acquired PlaySimple with a whopping amount of $360 million. PlaySimple also confirmed the news. This is one of the largest exits in the Indian Startup ecosystem.
PlaySimple is Acquired by MTG
MTG, the Swedish online gaming company, has strengthened its gaming portfolio further by acquiring Indian gaming startup PlaySimple. The deal was closed for $360 million. MTG also informed that it will pay 77% of the deal amount in cash and the remaining amount will be transferred in the form of company shares.
Other than that, there is a reward of $150 million based on the certain undisclosed operations of PlaySimple, as stated by both buyers and sellers.
PlaySimple has surprised everyone with one of the largest exits among Indian startups. The startup has only raised $4 million in the Series A round at a valuation of about $16 million from Elevation Capital and Chiratae Ventures in 2016.
PlaySimple raised $4.5 million to date. It is a surprising number after considering the demand for PlaySimple. The startup did not show any interest in the funding raise due to revenue surge. It took care of the expenses by itself.
The successful gaming startup operates nine-word games including “Daily Themed Crossword,” “Word Trip,” “Word Jam,” and “Word Wars”.
PlaySimple Growth and MTG Expansion
PlaySimple has shown immense growth in recent years. As per the startup’s claim, the company observed year on year 144% growth to reach a revenue of $83 million in 2020. As per current growth metrics, the startup was expected to produce $60 million in revenue in the first half of the current year.
PlaySimple co-founders(Siddhanth Jain, Suraj Nalin, and Preeti Reddy) are quite satisfied with the startup’s growth. In a joint statement, they said, “We’re very proud of the games we’ve developed over the years, and of the infrastructure and scale that we’ve achieved with our team.”
The current management team of PlaySimple has joined the MTG family and are excited to extend the PlaySimple gaming portfolio to the European market. The team also wants to add more games to the existing list. The team plans to enter card games.
PlaySimple games are free for its users. As per current statistics, PlaySimple games recorded over 75 million downloads and welcome over 2 million daily active users.
MTG CEO and Group President Maria Redin praised PlaySimple due to its extraordinary growth rate. Maria believes that it will be an exciting new genre for MTG and PlaySimple will help MTG build a diversified gaming vertical.
