Eloelo raises $2.1M for creator-led social gaming platform in India

Eloelo, a startup that is India’s quickest expanding creator-led live social gaming platform, has raised $2.1 million in funding.

Founded in August 2020 by Saurabh Pandey and Akshay Dubey, Eloelo is a livestreaming and social gaming platform. It brings indigenous activities like tambola, antakshari, chidiya udd, musical chairs, and talented performers in live formats with creators hosting games for their neighborhood of fans.

Eloelo has seen a 15 occasions spike in customers more than the previous six months, crossing one million customers on the platform with more than one hundred million game events recorded. Over 50% of the user base is female. Eloelo’s platform delivers a live interactive skilled exactly where rather of just watching gameshows or events customers can participate and turn into interactive stars.

They had passion for the creator economy, as Pandey used to do stand-up comedy and managed his mother’s Youtube channel earlier.

“We started as content creators on social media and realized how few means existed for creators to monetize directly from their audiences,” Pandey mentioned in an e mail to GamesBeat. “Creators hosting indigenous social games live was a unique insight we had after observing how Anchors host gameshows on TV or how families play such truly social games together.”

The funding

The pre-series A round was led by Waterbridge Ventures and Lumikai Fund. The latter is India’s very first gaming and interactive media venture capital fund. Better Capital and talent management firm Exceed Entertainment also participated in the round.

Eloelo launched its beta in September 2020, and the core project launched in January. The Bangalore-based firm will use the funds to augment its creator partnerships as nicely as launch new live game formats, scaling the platform so it can get its next 10 million customers.

“India’s creator economy is the fastest growing in the world, and the largest untapped audience in this space is women creators and influencers,” mentioned Justin Shriram Keeling, cofounder of Lumikai, in an e mail with GamesBeat. “Eloelo has created a uniquely wholesome, fun and vibrant platform for creators to use their proprietary, lean-forward social gaming formats for families and friends can play together in a safe environment. Eloelo’s growth to over 100 million-plus game sessions in under nine months speaks for itself — and with more than 10,000 creators already onboard organically they’ve demonstrated that anyone from any background can become a future gaming superstar.”

Pandey, CEO of Eloelo, mentioned in an e mail to GamesBeat that live video is increasingly resonating with fans as it assists them construct genuine relationships with creators. Today, customers devote anyplace among 30 minutes to 35 minutes everyday enjoying live games and livestreams on the app.

In the next year, Eloelo will launch a number of creator-led live games and occasion formats that unlock monetization for creators and interactive entertainment for customers, Pandey mentioned.

Eloelo is positioned at the intersection of the most creator economy and live social gaming trends. Global parallels to EloElo’s model can be drawn to significant providers in China such as Bigo Live, which has a focus on live streaming does $2 billion in annual revenues, and Hago, which had more than one hundred million downloads in India ahead of the Chinese apps ban.

Ravi Kaushik, companion at Waterbridge Ventures, mentioned in a statement that the founders are developing a distinctive gamified livestreaming platform for content creators, and they have finest-in-class engagement and retention metrics for more than a million partners.

Dubey, cofounder at Eloelo, mentioned in an e mail that India has more than 5 million creators, but 97% of them have quite restricted earnings possibilities. With a differentiated supplying, the firm has seen a lot of excitement from creators who have joined the platform and invited their fans from social platforms as nicely, Dubey mentioned.

Future vision

Eloelo is adding quite a few more live game templates for creators to host for their fans. It has also began a creator plan exactly where aside from monetization, creators are equipped with information and insights from their live events along with guidance to aid develop to 10 million customers more than the next 12 months.

The firm has 22 personnel. The initial target market place is India, but the firm could trial to scale globally as nicely. The solution vision is to construct a genuinely interactive, inclusive platform exactly where creators host live games and customers locate it to be a protected, entertaining expertise to unwind, Pandey mentioned.

The firm mentioned content creators experimenting with a number of formats to showcase genuine dimensions of their character with audiences.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz