Zupee, a skill-based online gaming platform, has announced the appointment of Ashwani Rana as the Chief Public Policy Officer. Ashwani joins Zupee from Meta (Facebook), where he was Director of Public Policy for over six years. Before joining Meta, he was with Bharti Airtel for over 10 years as their Chief Regulatory Office (Operations). He has worked closely with the top trade organizations in the nation and headed numerous committees there. Throughout his profession, Ashwani has driven various strategy drives at the organization and industry levels. He holds a Master’s in Business Law, Public Policy, and Management.

Congratulating Ashwani Rana on joining the organization, Dilsher Singh Malhi, Founder & CEO of Zupee, said, “We are delighted to have Ashwani on board.” With extensive experience in navigating a variety of regulatory challenges, he will be instrumental in steering Zupee through the evolving online gaming regulatory landscape.

Speaking on his appointment, Ashwini Rana, Chief Public Policy Officer at Zupee, said, “This is an exciting time to be part of the online gaming industry that will have a transformational effect on the digital economy of India.” I look forward to playing an active role in the growth of Zupee and working with the government and other stakeholders toward enabling policies for this sector.”

Ashwani has about thirty years of senior leadership experience, and his work is broadly recognized in the areas of Internet and telecom approaches and guidelines.

Zupee recently completed a USD 102 million Series B financing round, with an additional USD 30 million raised at the time. The round saw participation from marquee investors, for example, WestCap Group, Tomales Bay Capital, Nepean Capital, AJ Capital, Matrix Partners India, and Orios Venture Partners. This takes the total funds raised by Zupee to USD 121 million at a USD 600 million valuation. Zupee has north of 70 million downloads in India and the new capital raise will assist it with developing its reach significantly.

Founded by IIT Kanpur graduates Dilsher Singh Malhi and Siddhant Saurabh in 2018, Zupee is India’s fastest developing skill-based mobile gaming and knowledge platform. The online gaming sector has seen a blast during the pandemic, developing at a CAGR of 40% with just north of 400 million users in the country. The industry is supposed to have a market size of 5 billion dollars in India by 2025, developing by 113%.

Credit: BW Gaming World