| Vishal Gondal | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 14, 1976 |
| Residence | Mumbai |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur/Venture Capitalist |
| Title | CEO Indiagames |
Vishal Gondal, (born 14 July 1976) is an Indian investor and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Indiagames, a global computer games developer and publisher in India.[1] He was featured among the top 40 Indian entrepreneurs by Business Today in 2001.
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Gondal was born in Mumbai, India. He stepped into the world of games when he was 13. He sideline studies to learn videogame development. He studied commerce in college.
Gondal started his first company FACT at the age of 16. In 1999, he founded Indiagames, then a five member team. Indiagames is primarily engaged in publishing and developing games across various platforms like Internet, PC, broadband, mobile phones, PDAs, handheld gaming devices and consoles.
Considered the most important gaming developer and publisher in India, Indiagames controlled in 2005 a 60% share in India's game-related wireless value-added services market.[2] In 2009, Indiagames had over 300 employees and offices in Mumbai, Beijing, London and Los Angeles.
In 2005, he sold a majority of stakeholds (adding up to 76,29% of the company) to TOM online Games a subsidiary of TOM Online Inc.[2] although he kept his position as CEO. In December 2007, the Indian company UTV Software Communication acquired a majority stake in Indiagames.[3]
In 2008, he launched Sweat and Blood Venture group in order to invests in startups at a seed level.[4] So far, the Venture group has invested in three start-ups Mumbai-based Gama Entertainment Systems, a developer and manufacturer of entertainment hardware and software products for the retail industry, Instablogs, a blogging community, and Kyko, a start-up currently in stealth mode.
In 2011, Indiagames was acquired by Disney for around $100m. At the time of acquisition, Indiagames was making a profit of $400,000 on revenues of $11 million as reported by various publication. [5]
He has been part of the Nokia Advisory Council for Games and actively advices Nokia on wireless and gaming technologies.
Vishal Gondal was chosen E&Y Indian Entrepreneur of the year award nomination in 2004 and in 2005.[6] He was listed among the top 50 executives in the mobile content space by the UK based ‘Mobile Entertainment’ Magazine. He was also featured among the 20 Fab Indians to watch out for in 2006 by The Week magazine.
Indiagames was featured amongst Red Herring (magazine) Asia’s Top 100 companies in 2005.
Gondal is also known as the “Gaming King” [1] in India.