Inside Krafton’s India investment playbook; Weaving a new future for women

Hello,

The IPL season is nearly here, complete with hair-raising plays, screaming fans, and…neuroscience?

As the Indian Premier League draws closer, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance is using some unconventional tactics to boost revenues from the world’s most valuable cricket league.

To battle competitors like Netflix and Amazon in the $28-billion market, the company has been targeting small businesses and pitching advertising agencies with "brain mapping" research that it claims shows its streaming ads have a higher engagement rate than even YouTube. 

Digital is the new battleground for many broadcasters, who are feeling the pinch in their direct-to-home verticals. In fact, The Tata and Bharti groups are finalising a merger between Tata Play and Airtel Digital TV to tide over the steady trickle of subscribers to streaming sites.

Meanwhile, tighter equity derivatives trading rules are pushing India’s smaller cities to a new source of supplemental income–cryptocurrencies. 

Retail traders are now looking beyond traditional stocks and options to assets like bitcoin, ethereum, and dogecoin, whose cumulative trading volumes on four of India’s largest exchanges have grown more than two-fold quarter-on-quarter to $1.9 billion in the October-December quarter. 

Out of the top 10 centres that propelled crypto activity in the country in 2024, seven were lower-tiered cities, such as Jaipur, Lucknow and Pune, according to CoinSwitch.

It’s the dawn of a brave new world for India’s trader community. 

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Inside Krafton’s India investment playbook
• Weaving a new future for women
• In conversation with Rukam Capital’s Archana Jahagirdar

Here’s your trivia for today: What is the English translation of the name of the Italian dessert tiramisu?

Gaming

Inside Krafton’s India investment playbook

Krafton’s presence in India extends far beyond battle royales. With investments totalling over $170 million across various startups, the Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) maker has positioned itself as a venture capitalist, backing sectors that complement its long-term vision.

“We don’t have a specific sector focus,” says Nihansh Bhat, Lead at Corporate Development, in an interaction with YourStory. “As strategic investors, we invest where we see alignment with our core business or our growing portfolio of media and entertainment assets,” he adds.

Key takeaways:

• Krafton’s recent investment in Indian payments firm Cashfree, where it led a $53 million round, marked its foray into the fintech sector. 
• Beyond fintech, Krafton has aggressively backed Indian gaming studios, including Devtouch, Lila Games, and Nautilus Mobile. It has also set up the KIGI program, an incubator for early-stage game developers, with investments as small as $150,000. 
• In a bid to attract more Korean investors to India, Krafton has anchored India-focused investment vehicles like the IMM India Fund. Through these initiatives, the firm aims to play an active role in bridging the gap between the two markets, helping Korean investors warm up to India’s rapidly-evolving startup ecosystem.

Funding Alert

Startup: Technodysis

Amount: Rs 10 Cr

Round: Debt

Startup: Dodo Payments

Amount: $1.1M

Round: Pre-Seed

Startup

Weaving a new future for women

Heena Patel is the Founder of Magic Needles, a company that crafts a diverse range of handmade knitted and crochet products while empowering 300 women with sustainable livelihoods.

“On a lark, I ordered a few needles and yarn. I knitted a sweater with basic knowledge of stitches. I started buying kits, and soon, knitting became my solace and escape. When the twins started playgroup at two-and-a-half, I turned to knitting again after a gap and started learning crochet, too, through YouTube videos,” she tells HerStory.

Hobby to business:

• At present, Magic Needles employs 300 women, of which 150 are from Mumbai, 50 from Himachal Pradesh, 50 from Kolkata, and the remaining from the rest of India, who produce over 1,400 SKUs.
• The company follows a decentralised model, where artisans work from home, allowing them to balance household responsibilities while earning a dignified income.
• As Magic Needles evolved, Patels identified another gap in the market—the lack of high-quality yarns in India. Rather than relying on Turkish yarn as they had been doing since the company’s inception, they boldly launched their premium yarn brand, Hobby Store.

Interview

In conversation with Rukam Capital’s Archana Jahagirdar

Rukam Capital Founder and Managing Partner Archana Jahagirdar is part of the organising committee for the second edition of Startup Mahakumbh, which is bringing together over 3,000 startups and over 1,000 investors to discuss and fuel entrepreneurial ideas and growth at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. 

YourStory spoke with Jahagirdar to understand the rising role of VC firms in the startup ecosystem and how the stigma attached to risk capital needs to undergo further change in the country today.

Key takeaways:

• Venture capital is still not a widely accepted asset class in India. Indians have traditionally preferred real estate, gold, and, more recently, mutual funds and the stock market. But VCs remain, in my opinion, misunderstood, leading to shallow commentary—especially after the BYJU’S debacle, she says.
• India has plenty of early-stage capital from angels and micro VCs, but later-stage funding has long relied on global giants like Tiger, SoftBank, and Prosus… And with many of these global firms stepping back, the funding gap is glaring. Their exits weren’t about India’s potential but their own shifting strategies, yet their absence triggered a funding winter.
• “Institutional investors have a higher fiduciary responsibility—they're not managing personal wealth, so their caution is understandable. Unlike family offices, they ask tougher questions, and rightfully so,” Jahagirdar adds.

News & updates

• Free AI: Google introduced a new, free consumer version of its AI code completion and assistance tool, Gemini Code Assist for Individuals. The company also rolled out Gemini Code Assist for GitHub, a code review “agent” designed to automatically look for bugs in code and offer suggestions directly within GitHub.
• Lift ban: Indonesia and Apple Inc. have agreed to lift the country’s ban on iPhone 16s, paving the way to end a five-month tug-of-war that forced the US tech giant to raise its promised investment in the country to $1 billion. Indonesia’s Ministry for Industry will sign a memorandum of agreement with Apple as soon as this week.
• Exit: Unilever surprised investors by ousting CEO Hein Schumacher and replacing him with CFO Fernando Fernandez, who will take over the tough task of reviving the consumer group's performance. Schumacher's sudden departure after less than two years in the job hit Unilever's shares, which fell as much as 3.4% on Tuesday.

What is the English translation of the name of the Italian dessert tiramisu?

Answer: “Cheer me up”.

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