Pocket52

Pocket52, registered as Nirdesa Networks Pvt Ltd., is an online gaming platform founded in 2017 by a team of four avid poker players and entrepreneurs: Nitesh Salvi, Saurav Suman, Debashish Bhattacharjee, and Satyam Verma. The founders, alumni of institutions like IIT Bombay and NIT Trichy, identified a trust deficit in the Indian online poker market, which was dominated by platforms running on leased software with little control over user experience and game fairness. This led them to build their own platform from scratch, focusing on a secure and transparent gaming environment.

The company's core offering is a dual-pronged business model. It operates a direct-to-consumer (B2C) online platform where users can play various poker and rummy games. This platform is available on both Android and iOS devices. Simultaneously, Pocket52 functions as a B2B provider, offering a plug-and-play solution that allows other online gaming companies to integrate a poker offering into their own platforms. This approach addresses a key industry challenge: player liquidity. By creating the Pocket52 Network, India's first shared liquidity pool, the company enables players from various partner platforms, such as Mobile Premier League (MPL) and Calling Station, to compete against each other in real-time. This increases the number of active players, leading to larger tournament prize pools and a wider variety of games available at any given time.

A cornerstone of Pocket52's technology is its in-house developed, cryptographically secure Random Number Generator (RNG), which is certified by iTech Labs in Australia. This feature was designed to directly address the prevalent trust issues among players regarding the fairness of online card shuffling. The platform provides advanced features for players, including performance analytics, hand history analysis, and insights into opponents' playing styles to help them refine their strategies. Additionally, it offers user-friendly features like a hybrid lobby, customizable table themes, and interactive emojis. Revenue is generated from its B2C gaming operations, which constitute the majority of its business, and from its B2B network services. Since its inception, the company has secured a total of $3.22 million in funding over three rounds, with key investors including Gameskraft and Speciale Invest. However, in May 2025, it was announced that Gameskraft would be pausing the operations of Pocket52 in July 2025, citing a need to reassess its long-term strategy for the poker category amid regulatory challenges in the real-money gaming sector.

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