Karnataka VC funding only for subscription or ad-driven gaming companies
According to official sources, the province government can invest the corpus of its AVGC venture fund solely in such play startups that are driven by a subscription-based or an advertisement-based business model, while also moving forward with banning all online indulgent games.
AVGC—a form for animation, visual effects, play, and comics—is a sector the IT/BT department has been encouraging among the startup schemes because of its growth potential.
Karnataka is the sole state that has discovered an avid venture fund to back AVGC startups.
An plus management company below the IT/BT department identifies promising startups within the sector and supports them victimisation its Rs 20-crore corpus, raised from a couple of government-run establishments. The corporate has shortlisted target corporations, and therefore the investment method goes on.
CN Ashwath Narayan, IT/BT minister, aforementioned that the government is committed to promoting startups as well as innovators within the gambling business.
"In the course of promoting business, the department can adhere to the framework and be in accordance with the law," he told ET. There are approximately ninety-one startups in Mysore that are within the gambling area.
Official sources aforementioned that the government wouldn't back gambling companies—including those running skill-based games—if they lack transparency regarding their games or are found to be concealing one thing from players or if their games fall within the grey area.
"We can scrutinise their business model before taking the investment decision," a political candidate aforementioned, not willing to be known. "Only such gambling apps that facilitate players' improvement of their gambling skills can get our backing," he added.
The government supports an AVGC startup with a maximum funding of Rs. two large integers.
Another necessary demand is that the startup ought to have its gambling app out there on the golem or iOS play store.
The Mysore Assembly has passed a bill amending the Police Act, 1963, that seeks to ban online games that are "games of chance" in nature. Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, however, has already said that the new law doesn't disallow online games that are pure "games of skill" where the player doesn't risk losing his or her cash.
