Eloelo raises $22 million in funding led by Courtside Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners

Eloelo claims to currently have over 120,000 creators and over 37 million users on its platform.

Eloelo, a creator-led social gaming and live entertainment platform, said on September 20 that it has raised $22 million funding from a clutch of new and existing investors, signalling the growing global investor interest in India's digital entertainment industry.

The funding round was led by Courtside Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners with participation from Japanese mobile entertainment giant Mixi. Existing investors Pernod Ricard's corporate venture arm Convivialité Ventures, Waterbridge Ventures, Lumikai Fund, Kalaari Capital, and Rocket Capital also participated in the financing round.

This investment comes over a year after Eloelo raised $13 million funding led by Korea's KB Investments and Kalaari Capital in June 2022. The company has raised a total of $37.5 million in funding to date.

Eloelo plans to use the funds raised to partner with more creators, develop new tools in the areas of artificial intelligence and augmented reality, bolster its revenue generation and monetisation initiatives and attract tech and product talent.

"Eloelo is pioneering a new form of entertainment in India. Through a unique combination of game participation within live streaming, they are building the next generation of social networking that enables true interactivity within their community," said Kai Bond, Partner at Courtside Ventures, an early-stage fund that focuses on sports, lifestyle, and gaming sectors.

Started in August 2020 by former Flipkart executives Saurabh Pandey and Akshay Dubey, Eloelo allows creators to host live video and audio rooms, build interactive communities and monetise directly from fans through virtual gifts that can be converted into physical money.

"Through the magic of gamification, Eloelo is transforming livestreams into captivating experiences that translate to deep audience engagement," said Nick Tuosto, co-founder of Griffin Gaming Partners, a gaming-focused US venture capital firm.

Creators can combine their live audio and video chatrooms with interactive games such as Quiz, Tambola, Antakshari, Lucky 7, Card games, and Spin the Wheel. People can also watch live events and shows that creators conduct across various categories such as dancing, music, cooking, comedy and astrology among others.

The Bengaluru-based startup claims to currently have over 120,000 creators on its platform. It also claims to have over 37 million users, registering a 400 percent year-on-year growth. Pandey told Moneycontrol that its focus on 'clean' entertainment has been one of the key drivers of its user growth.

"Live streaming as a category has seen very few people who have really been focused on clean family and entertainment. So, there's a lot of focus on moderation and AI tools to sort of empower creators to ensure that everything is clean for a family viewing," Pandey said.

"Eloelo wants to be a “party in your pocket”, where users are not just watching a livestream but are part of the experience. Social Media is supposed to help you belong but most alternatives let you consume content solitarily. We are pioneering a new category of Live Social Entertainment– almost like a ‘Digital Third Place’ where young Indians are always connected," he said.

The app is currently available in six Indian languages with plans to add support for more local languages in order to cater to the growing adoption from tier 2,3 audiences.