Investing in Eloelo | Rocket Capital
Last week we announced our investment in Eloelo's US$ 13 Million Series A round which was co-led by KB Investments and Kalaari Capital along with existing investors, Waterbridge Ventures & Lumikai Fund & saw participation from Rocket Capital and Convivialité Ventures.
In our quest to find disrupting new media technology, this India-based social gaming, live-streaming app stood out, as the platform infrastructure brings together some crucial elements of the gaming industry — content creators, fans, and viewers.
We have previously discussed how monetization is the biggest pain point when it comes to the gaming industry (Read more). The key to unlocking various revenue streams in the gaming industry is enabling the content creators. These content creators are at the core of -
- Mobilizing the fans
- Building a community
- Broadening the viewership funnel
- Unlocking additional revenue streams
Here we briefly discuss our investment in creator-led, Social Gaming & Live Streaming platform — Eloelo.
Tapping the Monetization potential of Creator Economy in India
The Creator Economy of India has massive monetization potential. The lowered internet rates, accelerated penetration of smartphones, and connectivity to remote corners — have bridged the existing gaps and also added a prolific number of next-gen social media users to the mix.
Here’s a snapshot of some of the top content creators/influencers on Youtube and Instagram in India.
However, there is a lot more fish in the sea. The top tier of content creators has ample opportunity to monetize their fandom through brands and advertisements, but the lower end of the pyramid with comparatively fewer followers is still caught in the net.
Enters Eloelo.
Eloelo not only unlocks the monetization potential of the lower end of the pyramid but also takes this engagement one step further. The introduction of the concept of social gaming in live steaming helps creators generate content without the hassle and also engages viewers resulting in additional revenue streams.
Democratizing Live Streaming — Solving the Monetization conundrum of the Content Creators
Eloelo is building a set of proprietary tools to democratize live streaming and empower content creators. The platform enables hassle-free indigenous content creation, community building, and monetization of the creator’s live streams.
First product phase: Eloelo has built live tools for creators like games, fan interactions, AR filters & Effects. The platform has more than 12 proprietary indigenous social games created inside a live stream which solves the problem of “what to live stream?” and enables creators to focus on audience engagement.
Next product phase: In the next phase of the product, creators will be able to simultaneously cast their Live events hosted on eloelo to all the Social Networks where they have already built a community with the end goal of redirecting the traffic to the eloelo platform.
Why we invested in Eloelo?
We are very excited about investing in Eloelo and supporting the company on its mission to democratize the live stream and help creators effectively monetize their live streams. Here are a few reasons why we think Eloelo has the potential to become a market leader in creator’s monetization:
- Defensibility — The main defensibility of Eloelo’s product is two-sided network effects on its platform connecting content creators and audience. As more creators (supply side) jump to the platform, more people (demand side) are attracted to the platform and the other way around. Likewise, as more creators manage to monetize their content, new creators are attracted to the platform. On the supply side, so far Eloelo has onboarded more than 40,000 creators. On the demand side, the platform has about 3.5Mn+ users, 160K daily active users, and 1.2 Million monthly active users. Most importantly, the creator & audience retention rate is steadily increasing and product defensibility is growing stronger over time.
- Scalability — Eloelo has a sound business model and is uniquely positioned. We see wide applications for the product to scale across industries (from live streaming and social gaming to e-commerce) and integrated over various platforms. Social Gaming & Live Streaming has a huge potential in India with the Gaming industry already on the path to hit over US$6 Billion by 2025 with a CAGR of 38%. Also, India is a prospective market of over a billion people who have a higher willingness to engage and spend in high interaction Social gaming. Equipped with the right tools, content creators and the audience together will boost the network and growth of Eloelo.
- Great team — We truly believe Eloelo, founded by former Flipkart executives Saurabh and Akshay, has the right team and strategic tools to achieve its long-term vision. After their successful entry into the live streaming industry with 3.5Million+ Users and 40,000+ creators on board, we are confident in their ability to achieve the even more challenging task of unlocking additional revenue streams for the creator economy.
The Series A funding round will enable Eloelo to scale up its operations and onboard new creators. India has a massive audience, while monetization is in its infancy, which makes it an attractive platform for content creators as well as brands.
Congrats again to the Eloelo team!
Rocket Capital
Rocket Capital is a VC fund focusing on New Media Technology start-ups globally. We invest in pre-Series A, Series A & B companies and help founders scale in Asia.
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