Roblox has named Sunil Rao as its Managing Director for India, making him the company’s most senior representative in the country. He joins in May, with a remit that covers local partnerships, creator ecosystem development, and aligning India’s market needs with Roblox’s global priorities.The timing reflects a genuine opportunity. In 2025, Roblox creators worldwide earned over $1.5 billion, and India—with its large youth population and growing digital infrastructure—is seen as underpenetrated. A dedicated market lead is a logical next step.
Building ecosystems is familiar territory for Rao
Rao comes with a solid track record in exactly this kind of work. He built developer ecosystems at Symbian, Nokia, and Google during the mobile internet’s formative years, later became a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, and most recently led Strategy and Corporate Business Development for AWS across Asia-Pacific and Japan.That background gives him a useful mix of operational experience and an understanding of how developer communities actually grow—which is central to what Roblox needs in India right now. The platform offers free tools for coding, game design, and creation, and a big part of Rao’s role will be helping local studios use those tools to find commercial success.He flagged child safety and regulatory compliance as immediate priorities—important commitments for a platform with a predominantly young user base operating in a market with an evolving regulatory framework.Zhen Fang, Roblox’s VP of International, said Rao’s expertise in building operations across diverse markets made him the right fit. With this hire, Roblox is putting some real weight behind its India ambitions.
