Eloelo Secures $22 Million Funding, Spearheaded by Courtside Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners

Eloelo, a creator-led social gaming and live entertainment platform, announced on September 20 that it has secured $22 million in funding from a mix of both new and existing investors. This development underscores the increasing interest from global investors in India's digital entertainment industry.

The funding round was spearheaded by Courtside Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners, with participation from Mixi, a prominent Japanese mobile entertainment company. Notably, Eloelo's existing investors, including Convivialité Ventures (Pernod Ricard's corporate venture arm), Waterbridge Ventures, Lumikai Fund, Kalaari Capital, and Rocket Capital, also contributed to this financing round.

This investment follows Eloelo's previous funding of $13 million in June 2022, which was led by Korea's KB Investments and Kalaari Capital, bringing the total funding raised by the company to $37.5 million.

Eloelo intends to utilize the newly acquired capital to forge partnerships with more content creators, advance its technological capabilities in areas like artificial intelligence and augmented reality, strengthen its revenue generation and monetization strategies, and attract top-tier tech and product talent.

"Eloelo is at the forefront of transforming entertainment in India. By combining interactive gaming with live streaming, they are shaping the future of social networking, enabling genuine engagement within their community," stated Kai Bond, Partner at Courtside Ventures, a venture fund with a focus on sports, lifestyle, and gaming sectors.

Founded in August 2020 by former Flipkart executives Saurabh Pandey and Akshay Dubey, Eloelo empowers creators to host live video and audio sessions, cultivate interactive communities, and directly monetize their content through virtual gifts that can be converted into real money.

Nick Tuosto, co-founder of Griffin Gaming Partners, a U.S.-based venture capital firm dedicated to gaming, commented, "Eloelo is using gamification to transform livestreams into captivating experiences that drive deep audience engagement."

Creators on the platform can seamlessly integrate live audio and video chatrooms with interactive games like Quiz, Tambola, Antakshari, Lucky 7, card games, and Spin the Wheel. Users can also enjoy live events and shows spanning various categories, such as dance, music, cooking, comedy, and astrology, among others.

Based in Bengaluru, Eloelo claims to have over 120,000 creators currently active on its platform and boasts an impressive user base of over 37 million, reflecting a remarkable 400 percent year-on-year growth. Saurabh Pandey, co-founder of Eloelo, emphasized their commitment to providing "clean" entertainment as a significant driver of this substantial user growth.

Pandey stated, "The live streaming category has seen relatively few players with a strong focus on clean family entertainment. Therefore, we place considerable emphasis on moderation and AI tools to empower creators in ensuring that the content remains suitable for family viewing."

He further added, "Eloelo aspires to be a 'party in your pocket,' where users not only passively watch live streams but actively participate in the experience. While most social media platforms enable content consumption in isolation, we are pioneering a new category of Live Social Entertainment, akin to a 'Digital Third Place,' where young Indians are continuously connected."

Presently available in six Indian languages, Eloelo has plans to expand its language support to cater to the increasing adoption of its platform among audiences in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.