WinZO plans to increase its position by entering the Brazilian market at a time when the gaming sector in the nation is in crisis due to the GST Council's decision to tax 28% GST on real money gaming. According to Saumya Singh Rathore, cofounder of WinZO, the gaming company intends to invest $25 million in the Brazilian gaming industry, which will open up new growth prospects for the export of computing, technology, and consumer electronics from India.

“The market is underserved with very few products catering to the Portuguese market. We are planning to solve for the underserved market, as we did here in India. During our beta stage, Ludo became very popular there and we are looking at introducing many more games in the market", Rathore added. The startup, which has partnered over 100 game developers and offers casual games such as carrom, chess, and car racing, among others, on its platform, will also allow its partners to offer games directly in the new market without any cost of technology, marketing, and distribution. 

Founded by Paavan Nanda and Saumya Singh in 2018, WinZO partners with third-party developers to host games on its mobile-based application. It offers games in 12 languages, including English, Hindi, Gujarati, and Marathi, and claims to have more than 100 million users. Earlier this year, WinZO launched a $50 Mn ‘Game Developer Fund’ to invest in global startups across all forms of interactive entertainment game developers and publishers, economies around gaming, content creation, live-ops, and security.

WinZO’s net loss surged 2.3X to INR 121 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) from INR 51 Cr in the previous fiscal year, while revenue from operations also jumped 2.3X to INR 234 Cr. The latest development comes at a time when the Indian online gaming sector is crying havoc due to the new GST regime, which does not differentiate between games of skill and games of chance. 

The hike in the GST rate has also resulted in the likes of MPL and Spartan Poker, while startups such as Quizzy, OWN, and Fantok have temporarily shut their operations. Last month, Bengaluru-based Gameskraft also pulled the plug on its fantasy offering, Gamezy Fantasy. Meanwhile, the Directorate General of GST Intelligence (DGGI) has sent show-cause notices to gaming companies, including Dream11 and Play Games 24X7, for alleged tax evasions. Overall, gaming companies are said to receive tax notices totalling about INR 1 Lakh Cr.