VISHAL GONDA AKA FATHER OF THE INDIAN GAMING INDUSTRY

Vishal Gondal is a businessman from India, also known as the “Father of the Indian Gaming Industry” since he founded his first gaming company, “IndiaGames,” in 1998. His current endeavour, GOQii (pronounced Go-Key), is a wearable technology business that intends to establish a health care ecosystem. 

He is an Indian entrepreneur, the founder, and CEO of a fitness technology firm. 

From September 2012 until June 2013, he was the Managing Director of The Walt Disney Company, India’s digital business. He is also a prominent Angel Investor. After stepping down as managing director of DisneyUTV Digital, the 38-year-old entrepreneur has relaunched Indiagames 15 years later.

On September 4, 2020, Bollywood star Akshay Kumar tweeted about the upcoming release of FAU-G, a game created by Bengaluru-based nCORE Games, a Vishal Gondal company, on January 26, 2021.

Vishal Gondal EARLY LIFE

Vishal Gondal mentioned that he purchased a personal computer when he was 13 years old. At the age of 21, he became one of India’s millionaire businesspeople. He founded his first company, Indiagames, after finishing his education at the Mumbai University.

Vishal Gondal CAREER

Vishal, a final-year dropout, began his job at a relatively young age. As a young child who was captivated by computers, he first got his hands on one in eighth grade. He quickly learned the technique, and trust this or not, a bank gave him a deal of INR 60,000 to compile their whole mailing list of roughly 6000 consumers, based on his skills.

At around the same age, 13 years old, he entered the world of gaming, and by the age of 16, he was running a computer training institute in his father’s garage, where he taught WordStar, Lotus, and other programs. 

In addition, Vishal founded his first firm, “FACT,” in Chembur, Mumbai, the same year. Along with his team, he was working on making a video game on the Kargil War that occurred between India and Pakistan at the time. His game enabled its users to shoot Nawaz Sharif and other Pakistanis.

Since its release, his game has won him so much notoriety that he has been honored by the Indian army and interviewed by STAR News, CNN, and BBC.

Vishal Gondal PERSONAL LIFE

Many people are curious about his family; however it appears that details about his parents or siblings are kept private.

Vishal was born in Mumbai, India, and now lives in Menlo Park, California, with his wife Harpreet (whom he knew over his Indiagames days) and their two sons Aryan and Veer.

He used to be a national-level volleyball player for the state of Maharashtra. He also received a rank in the National Computer Problem Solving Contest for ‘C’ programming.

He received a rank in the National Computer Problem Solving Contest for ‘C’ programming.

Furthermore, he is a big enthusiast of running and walking, but he loves to do that instead of simply watching it. Vishal has also competed in a few half-marathons since 2011.

HISTORY OF HIS ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNEY

Even though he has been involved in entrepreneurship at a young age, he formally launched his career with the establishment of INDIAGAMES.

As we all know, Vishal was an avid gamer from boyhood, and because there were no official training institutes accessible at the time, he learned pretty much everything about gaming on his own. Vishal used to create games on his ZX Spectrum and PC XT (advanced computers from the 1980s) as a youngster. And finally, his passion developed into a company for him.

• INDIAGAMES

Vishal launched his second but largest business endeavor, ‘Indiagames,’ with a team of five employees in 1999, a video game development and publishing firm. They have also collaborated with Activision and Marvel to create and market a Spider-Man-themed game.

However, much to their or perhaps, everyone’s disappointment, the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, devastating the majority of Internet-based enterprises in India and abroad. And, like everyone else, they ran out of money!

Vishal took the greatest and riskiest gamble of his life in 2001, when hardly anyone used a mobile phone, owing mostly to the high incoming and outgoing costs of INR 8-16 a minute. He gambled the last INR 10-20 Lakhs he had on mobile gambling. And his fortunes turned out to be in his favor.

He began by creating games for corporations, and one of his first clients was Pepsi. He created a fun game for Pepsi in which players had to fire at Coke cans. This game achieved enormous popularity quickly after its introduction, and they were able to obtain initial capital for their start-up and formally establish Indiagames in no time.

Later that year, Vishal issued an announcement announcing the sale of a majority share in the company to TOM Online Games while maintaining his role as CEO. This was accompanied by another large share acquisition by UTV Software Communication in 2007.

Gondal sold this gaming company to DisneyUTV Digital for $100 million in 2011.

In 2012, he was appointed Managing Director of The Walt Disney Company’s (India) Digital business. Since then, Indiagames has been the market leader in the gaming business, led by – “India’s King of Gaming”!

• SWEAT AND BLOOD VENTURE GROUP

While Indiagames was at its height, Vishal decided to venture into a completely different genre, an entirely new ball game! 

In 2007, he began working for a venture capital business, concentrating on assisting start-ups in establishing a foothold!

Without any further fuss, Vishal founded Sweat and Blood Venture Group in 2008, with the goal of investing in seed-stage start-ups. Vishal began by putting an undisclosed sum of his own money into the enterprise.

• ABOUT GOQii INC. 

Vishal launched another health-related startup, GOQii, and presently serves as its CEO. GOQii manufactures fitness bands, and Akshay Kumar is the company’s brand ambassador.

GOQii, headquartered in Menlo Park, California, and formed in February 2014, provides a wearable fitness band combined with expert-led individualized coaching from the world’s finest experts and coaches, as well as parts of karma, to enable a lasting transformation to a better lifestyle.

GOQii, which went on sale in August after three months of beta testing, competes with Nike FuelBand, Fitbit, Jawbone, Google Fit, and Samsung Gear Fit on a global scale.

• nCORE Games

Vishal Gondal founded nCORE Games, Indian gaming and publishing company located in Bengaluru. The company develops smartphone games and applications for the Indian market and businesses. 

The Current Trend FAU-G Game is likewise developed by nCORE Games, and they have said that they would donate 20% of the net proceeds to the BharatKeVeer Trust. They recently released a draft of the next FAU-G game, addressing all concerns.

AWARDS, HONOURS, AND RECOGNITIONS

• Member of the Nokia Advisory Council for Games.
• Advisor to Nokia on wireless and gaming technologies.
• Member of the Inner Circle for The Ink Talks (in association with TED).
• Head of the Mumbai Chapter of “International Game Developers Association”.
• Listed amongst “Top 50 executives in the mobile content space” by a UK-based ‘Mobile Entertainment’ Magazine.
• Featured amongst “20 Fab Indians to watch out for in 2006” by The Week magazine.
• 2001 – Listed amongst “Top 40 Indian entrepreneurs” by Business Today. 
• 2004 & 2005 – Nominated for Indian Entrepreneur of the year award by E&Y.
• 2005 – Indiagames was featured amongst Red Herring Asia’s Top 100 companies.
• 2005 – Mobile Entertainment magazine listed Gondal as listed as one of the top 50 executives in the mobile content space. 
• 2012 – Voted as “Top 25 powerful people in Indian digital business”. 
• 2019 – “Entrepreneur Magazine” awarded him as Entrepreneur of the Year Award.