Krafton acquires $14m controlling stake in Indian studio Nautilus Mobile

Krafton has acquired a controlling stake in Indian gaming studio Nautilus Mobile for $14 million.

The all-cash deal was confirmed at the close of last week, with TechCrunch reporting Krafton’s “north of 75% stake” in the studio best known for its Real Cricket IP. It follows an earlier $5.4m investment Krafton made in Nautilius in 2022.

The studio will reportedly retain autonomy and all 45 staff. It will be Krafton’s thirteenth studio, joining other subsidiary developers like Bluehole, PUBG Studios, Striking Distance, Unknown Worlds, Tango Gameworks, and InZOI Studio.

“Our development capability in Nautilus will help Krafton double down on its India gaming strategy, and together, we can probably build more games, more genres, both for the Indian market and global market going forward,” Nautilus CEO Anuj Mankar said.

“We strongly believe that cricket games have a lot of potential,” Krafton’s corporate lead development at Krafton India, Nihansh Bhat, told TechCrunch. “And we want to work with Nautilus to make the best effort possible to really realize the potential of this market, not just in India, but in other cricket-playing nations and other countries, which are becoming more active in cricket.”

For more on Krafton’s expansion, read our feature, Why Krafton “made a sizeable bet” on India.

Krafton reported “record-breaking earnings” in 2024, with full-year revenue jumping 41.8% year-on-year to $1.85bn. Back in August, Krafton acquired Tango Gameworks and the Hi-Fi Rush IP from Xbox as part of a “strategic agreement”.