Learning the game of entrepreneurship

L Maruti Sanker, managing director of Hyderabad-based 7Seas Technologies, has always been an avid gamer. What started with floppy-based games like Prince of Persia, Dave and Mario, and the Dancing Bush on UK-based online portal Miniclip.com during his BTech days, grew into more than just an off-hour activity. “I absolutely loved playing floppy-based and online games during my leisure time, and slowly discovered that my passion could, in fact, be seriously pursued as a career,” he says.

Armed with an MBA, this university gold medalist worked as a senior executive (product support and business development) in Hyderabad-based IT company, VisualSoft Technologies. However, breaking into the gaming business was on his mind all through. “I had spent almost two years on understanding the nuances of gaming technologies. But the investors I approached were reluctant to back my efforts, as gaming, during 2005, was not an evolving industry,” Sanker recalls.

With all the doors of opportunities closed on him, Sanker rejigged his business plans. He sought financial support from his friend, K K Raju, who was an associate at VisualSoft.

Sanker then took over a loss-making Hyderabad Stock Exchange-listed non-banking finance company, Flair Investments and Finance, and renamed it 7Seas Technologies.

“We started really small, with an investment of just Rs 1.5 crore and our first online game, 3D Sudoku World, was rolled out globally in October 2006, followed by the launch of our gaming portal www.onlinerealgames.com in 2007,” says Sanker. Money soon flowed in and there was no looking back for the entrepreneur.

Seeing an ocean of opportunity that intellectual property (IP) brings — in the form of technology and creativity and believing that IP would be the next big thing in the gaming industry — Sanker acquired Neodelight, the gaming division of Germany’s Neokolor GBR for Rs 2 crore in January 2008, which brought into 7Seas’ fold 33 IP-based games, five game engines and a portal (www.neodelight.com).

Now, in its fourth year of operation, 7Seas has in its kitty 375 IP-based online games, seven 3D mobile games, two PC-based games and Kraze, a multi-genre racing game developed with an investment of Rs 2 crore. “Since inception, the company has grown from 12 employees to 90 now, and we plan to add 100 more next year,” he says.

The Rs 12-crore company has the distinction of being the first Indian game development company to create a game (Big Fight) featuring Barack Obama and McCain during the 2009 US presidential elections. It also created Who Wins on general elections in India. 7Seas is now gearing up to add 100 more online games across genres by December 2011.

Elaborating on his growth strategies, Sanker says: “We are looking at building more IPs, localised content and games for the global audience and leverage the mobile platform. We have already figured out some mobile genres and will roll out five 3D mobile games in the next couple of months.”

Sanker, who seems charged up, is also eyeing opportunities to acquire smaller gaming companies with mobile game expertise by 2011.