Paavan Nanda is the CEO and Co-founder of WinZO, India’s largest social gaming platform with
over 200 million registered users. An avid gamer, Paavan sensed an opportunity in gaming, driven
by improving mobile connectivity and declining data costs in the country. He founded WinZO Games
in 2018, with former colleague Saumya Singh Rathore. A second-time entrepreneur, Paavan founded
Zostel and ZO Rooms, a Tiger Global-backed aggregator model. Zostel is now Asia’s largest
backpacker hostel chain. Prior to starting his own business, Paavan worked for Bain & Company,
Abbott Labs, and Bank of America - Global Trading Desk. He received his engineering degree from
NSIT in 2009, and his MBA from IIM Calcutta in 2014.
Paavan is continuously looking for creative ideas to grow the interactive gaming ecosystem and
create memorable gaming experiences for its users. He has established a $50 million developer
fund at WinZO to fund and promote gaming, game technology and web3 projects around the world.
In recognition of his significant contributions, Paavan was named ‘Disruptor of the Year’ by
Business World in 2021 in appreciation of his accomplishments. WinZO was recognised as the
‘Startup of the Year’ in 2020 by Entrepreneur India.
