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Meet the woman behind a 2360 CR company with 175 million users. 1. Born in 1988 in a small city in Uttar Pradesh, Saumya Singh Rathore had a brilliant start. After finishing her Master's at the University of Manchester, she joined KPMG in January 2009 as an associate. But life had more in store for her. 🙌 2. She contributed to many successful projects at Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd. and Times Network. However, her childhood curiosity to try something new did not die. After a spotless corporate career of six long years, she took a big step. 👇 3. In January 2015, she joined an early-stage backpacker travel startup, ZO Rooms, as the Chief of the Core team. She led their brand, growth, and expansion until the Oyo-ZO fiasco of February 2016. Saumya wanted to do more and was looking for ideas. 🤔 4. Finally, it stuck. The number of game-developing companies in India touched 250 in 2017 from barely 25 in 2010, but no platform incentivised Tier 2 and 3 audiences. She wanted to solve this and roped her colleague at ZO (Paavan) as a co-founder. In 2017, WinZO was born. 🚀 5. The idea was simple ⏩ Build a vernacular hyper-casual gaming platform with real money winnings for users. However, building the business model was hard. She came up with an idea. 💡 6. She ran a test in which users paid Rs 2—Rs 25 to participate in real-time multiplayer games and win prizes from a pool of rewards set aside for them. She added regional languages and 25 local games like Cricket, Carrom and Fruit Smash to add the desi touch. And magic happened. 🪄 7. WinZO's user base grew to 5 million and 55 minutes daily time spent in just one year. Their daily deposits grew 100% monthly. 20% of them performed their first-ever digital transaction. In 2018, it raised its first funding of 3.3 CR from Kalaari. 💵 8. Their gameplay was growing by 30% daily as they followed a simple mantra: Every user should get a user. By 2019, they had grown to 20 million users, 200 million monthly transactions, and 1 billion gameplays a month. In February 2019, they raised 35.4 CR. 💰 9. It also partnered with 50 third-party indie game developers and studios to host their games on its platform. By September 2020, Winzo had scaled to 100 games, five formats, and 10 regional languages, raising 157 CR at a valuation of 455 CR. But the big moves were still to be played. 👇 10. Winzo had become the Top 100 Startups of 2020 but still had no big face. In 2022, cricketer MS Dhoni became their brand ambassador and partnered with YouTubers like Carry Minati and Bhuvan Bam. As they scaled to 50 million users, Winzo raised 487 CR, led by Griffin Gaming, and became a 2360 CR company. 📉 11. Today, WinZO is India's largest social gaming platform, with a revenue of 691 CR. It has grown to 175 million users, 5 billion monthly transactions, 12 regional languages, and over 100 games. ➡️ Saumya Singh Rathore - The lady behind one of the largest gaming companies in India. Take a bow! 🙏