The Girl Gamer We have created an interactive entertainment platform, with over 75 million registered users spending an average of 50 mins a day: Saumya Singh Rathore

A Psychology post-graduate from the UK, Saumya started her career with KPMG London and spent over 5 years with the Times Group across verticals of print, radio, and television businesses of the Times Group Companies. Saumya was a founding team member of ZO Rooms & Zostel, a Tiger Global-funded venture. Talking about her second venture, Saumya says, "We have created an interactive entertainment platform, with over 75 million registered users spending an average of 50 mins a day. The distinguishable offerings, laden with culturally relevant experience and vernacularisation have made WinZO an attraction for key global investors." WinZO is a series C funded venture-backed by global gaming and entertainment investment funds such as Griffin Gaming Partners, Maker's Fund, Courtside Ventures, Pags Group, and Kalaari having raised total equity capital of $100 million. The company was co-founded with Paavan, also the co-founder of ZO Rooms and Zostel. Sharing her vision, Saumya says, "We are a 150-member strong team, we are still day 0 of re-inventing gaming for Bharat and disrupting interactive entertainment globally. We were the leanest Series B funded venture, 40 members strong- each of those 40 members very vital to what we today see as the pillars of WinZO."

While building the product, the Founders were very mindful of two very critical aspects- (a) culturally relevant and relatable content for users - it is the only vernacular gaming platform and (b) scalable monetization model that would work for gaming assets in India and make gaming businesses viable. They have audio and video chat enabled on our platform which essentially creates a community of gamers to interact and engage with one another. Additionally, for the game developers, they have put substantive effort to not only let them from the technical know-how but also be able to drive better revenue streams. They also have furthered the support in the form of capital for which they have set up a Game Developer's Fund to the tune of $26MM to support small studios and indigenous developers. Recently, they announced the "The Gaming Lab' initiative in association with Kalaari Capital wherein they aim at guiding, opening, and maximizing opportunities for ideas and innovations that can significantly contribute to the upliftment of the entire gaming ecosystem. WinZO in its next phase of growth will expand its footprint globally. Adding further to the plans, Saumya says, "In addition to the 600 housewives, students, teachers, and 50,000+ young micro-influencers that we partner with, we shall onboard more of such partners to be a part of the growth as WinZO continues to penetrate the Indian and global markets."