Listed gaming major Nazara Technologies announced a major leadership reshuffle today, highlighted by founder Nitish Mittersain stepping down as the company’s managing director.
Mittersain, who founded the company in 1999 and took it public in 2021, has assumed a new role as “Founder and Non-Executive Director”. He will continue to provide strategic guidance to the board.
Meanwhile, CaratLane founder Mithun Sacheti, who joined the board as an additional director earlier this year, has been elevated to an executive whole-time director role for a period of five years. Sacheti will now assume a new position to oversee strategic initiatives and take on some operational responsibilities.
“He understands the consumer business space, digital consumer ecosystems … He brings extensive entrepreneurial,consumer and brand building experience,” the gaming major said in its disclosures to the bourses earlier today.
Besides, the board also noted the resignation of Rohit Sharma as Whole-time Director, effective from January 1, 2027, onwards, as he decided to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities. Sharma joined the company’s board as an advisor in January 2025 and was later roped in as executive director in August.
Additionally, Nazara’s CFO Rakesh Shah has also resigned to pursue external opportunities and will be replaced by Arun Agrawal, former global CFO at Ness Digital Engineering. Shah, who has been with the gaming major since 2010, will exit the company on October 15 though he will assist with transition duties for 90 days.
The change at the top of Nazara’s hierarchy comes shortly after Mittersain exited as CEO amid a turning point in the listed company’s journey.
Back in March, Nazara acquired a 50% stake in Spanish casual gaming studio Bluetile Games and its associate BestPlay Systems for a deal worth $100.3 Mn at base value, with performance-linked earn-outs of up to $98.2 Mn.
However, the terms of the deal were later restructured such that Nazara acquired 100% of Bluetile and BestPlay for a fixed cash consideration of $303 Mn, shelling out $89 Mn upfront and committing to pay the remainder in agreed tranches by April 1, 2027.
Besides, the gaming giant also approved a ₹733.5 Cr fundraise via preferential issue of equity shares to the founders and senior leadership team of Bluetile and BestPlay, including Bluetile’s founder and CEO Raymond Stauffer, who also took over from Mittersain as CEO on September 1.
Notably, Bluetile and BestPlay together generated nearly ₹1,400 Cr in revenue in calendar year 2025. Yet, Bluetile’s EBITDA remained flat in the quarter despite a 54% revenue jump as the company faced climbing user acquisition costs.
Besides all this, the company also faced de-subsidiarisation of its gaming and esports media arm NODWIN Gaming this year. Nazara opted not to participate in a $100 Mn external funding round raised by NODWIN, resulting in its shareholding slipping below 51%. NODWIN is also seeking to list independently on the bourses in the near future.
On the financial front, Nazara reported a net loss of ₹82.5 Cr on operating revenue of ₹428.8 Cr in Q1 FY27. The gaming major’s operating revenue also declined 14% YoY to ₹428.8 Cr.
The post Nazara Top Deck Shuffle: Founder Mittersain Steps Down As MD; Caratlane’s Sacheti Takes Executive Role appeared first on Inc42 Media.