Today we’re excited to announce our investment into Eloelo, India’s fastest growing creator-led, live social gaming platform. Co-leading this round with us are existing investors Waterbridge Ventures, along with participation from Better Capital, Exceed Entertainment, and selected strategic angels.
Eloelo has been on a rocketship since launching their interactive creator platform, racking up over 1M downloads, 10,000+ streamers, and 400,000 monthly active users in just nine months. It’s an approachable, plug & play interactive platform solving two key pain points: (i) monetisation for India’s new generation of live creators, and (ii) an inclusive, truly interactive gaming destination for all, especially female audiences.
The platform allows any creator to build a community, engage and monetize their followers through game templates, and by allowing almost anyone to become a creator- it truly democratizes the process. By providing a relatable and safe space for live gaming, Eloelo is also building one of gaming’s true white spaces in an interactive community for people of diverse backgrounds to hang out, socialize, and become superstar gaming influencers in their own right.
The founders, Saurabh and Akshay, cut their teeth as product leaders launching emerging mobile-first user categories to scale while at Flipkart. Their thesis, clarity of vision, and experience working across various consumer brands in India led them to generate unique insights on the Indian consumer, especially women. Saurabh has held key positions at L’oreal, Proctor and Gamble, and Flipkart, where he led the launch of the e-commerce giant’s Beauty and Wellness categories. Akshay led operations and product initiatives at GoZoomo and Flipkart, where he was part of the core team that launched the Groceries vertical.
Akshay Dubey (L) and Saurabh Pandey(R).
At Lumikai we often talk about how systems of play have massive potential to disrupt traditional linear digital experiences. There’s been a little true disruption in social media platforms for nearly a decade, but natively lean-forward, interactive user platforms have the potential to unlock new levels of engagement, blurring the lines between users and creators.
The advent of TikTok and Youtube celebrities has also entrenched a desire in Indians, especially those in Tier 2 and 3 towns to gain celebrity status. More importantly, short-form apps such as TikTok democratized this by allowing anyone and everyone to post content. Eloelo takes this a step further by enabling live interactions between creator and follower, through the use of anchor-led live shows. This allows creators to improve engagement with their followers while opening new monetization avenues such as live-tipping and gifting.
With over 100 million gameplays, 57% female userbase, and over 65% organic downloads- early traction points towards PMF. User and streamer surveys indicate that Eloelo offers a genuine, safe space for interactions between creators and users, much needed for female audiences (80% of Eloelo top creators are women).
This is a key moat for Eloelo, as most gaming platforms, especially RMG platforms are still male and youth dominated. But gaming audiences have long been much more diverse. Globally, a third of mobile gamers are older than 45, while the much talked about 16–24 year old age group accounts for only 14.2%. Women also play more, and play more often: their sessions last 25% longer, and 43% of women play more than 5x times a week. While motivations may vary, self-expression and socialisation also drive high monetisation: 4.5% of women spend in-game while 3.3% of men do. At Lumikai, we deeply believe in the power of immersive gaming experiences for diverse audiences and women are a large yet untapped demographic. Similar to global peers like BiliBili and Kumu, we see how interactive platforms can leverage the power of play to provide entertainment for all.
The current fundraise gives the Eloelo team enough runway to introduce new interactive features for its creators, deepen its community hooks and liquidity, and prepare for serious scale. We’ll also be doing our part, introducing key talent and connecting the team to the global market leaders we also represent as a fund. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Saurabh and Akshay on their journey to build the next generation of interactive social network for India’s diverse creator community.
Get in touch: hello@lumikai.com