ITV

Tag: Kalaari Capital

  • Hello Eloelo bags Rs 114 crore as gamified livestreams go prime time

    Hello Eloelo bags Rs 114 crore as gamified livestreams go prime time

    MUMBAI: If India’s social media scene were a dancefloor, Eloelo just dropped the bass. The interactive livestreaming platform has raised Rs 114.3 crore (13.5 million dollars) in Series B funding led by Play Ventures, with participation from Kalaari Capital, MIXI Investments, Gameskraft Technologies, Griffin Gaming Partners, Waterbridge Ventures, Courtside Ventures, and Rocket Capital.

    Eloelo, which describes itself as the “digital third place for Bharat,” is blending gamified livestreams, vernacular creator tools, and AI-led community-building into a potent entertainment cocktail and the party’s just getting started. This latest round takes the platform’s total funding to over 50 million dollars, following a 22 million dollars raise just last year.

    Eloelo founder & CEO Saurabh Pandey says, “Eloelo is bringing the ‘Social’ back in consumer social platforms at a time when most platforms are built for passive content viewing. We believe that feeling connected to others is a primary human need of belongingness, and we are solving that across 8 languages by connecting Indians over interactive livestreams with games, chat & virtual gifting to express their emotions. With close to 400 Million aspirational middle India consumers, we believe this is a massive underserved market which needs India-first solutions. Extremely proud of our team that has built a platform that handles large scale concurrency in live streams in 8+ languages along with building gen-AI tools to empower creators. The Series B round shows us the belief that our existing and new investors place on our vision and execution ability”

    And engage they have. With over 1.5 million paying users, the platform has already hit an annual revenue run rate of Rs 200 crore (23M dollars) within a year of switching on monetisation in May 2024.

    What makes Eloelo stand out is its zero-ad, no-paywall strategy. The platform thrives entirely on microtransactions, virtual gifts, fan support, and gamified features allowing creators to directly monetise their audiences. Over 20,000 creators are already earning through the platform, streaming in over eight Indian languages.

    Speaking on Eloelo’s revenue, Saurabh added, “We switched on monetization in May 2024 after 2-3 years of building the platform capabilities and scaling rapidly to hit PMF. In less than a year of launch, we are now hitting a 200 crore Annual revenue run rate ($23M ARR) with 1.5 Million paying users and are one of the fastest growing platforms in India at this scale. Consumer Tech in India is going through a massive shift away from ad-first models to micro payments, and we are happy to be powering this shift. Gone are the days when India was the MAU farm of the world – we are here to prove that the Bharat-first models have massive monetization potential as we track towards a 60M dollars run rate by end of this year. Beyond just numbers, the impact I am truly proud of at Eloelo is that more than 20,000 creators are now earning a livelihood by streaming and building their own digital communities”

    With India’s interactive entertainment and gaming space now worth 12 billion dollars (out of a 25 billion dollars total M&E market), and growing at a 16 per cent CAGR according to Lumikai, Eloelo is positioning itself as a frontrunner in a post-advertising digital world.

    The fresh capital will fuel the company’s next leg of growth: deeper generative AI use cases, further monetisation innovation, and international expansion targeting the Indian diaspora.

    As Eloelo scales, it’s not just playing to win, it’s rewriting the rules of how India’s social entertainment is consumed, created, and cashed in.

  • Priyanka Gill is elevated to chairperson of Good Media Co

    Priyanka Gill is elevated to chairperson of Good Media Co

    Mumbai: The Good Glamm Group announced the elevation of group co-founder Priyanka Gill to the board. Priyanka Gill is also elevated to chairperson of Good Media Co. This important announcement marks Priyanka’s transition to a more strategic position within the Good GlammGroup.

    Remaining an integral part of the Good Glamm Groups, group co-founder Priyanka will continue to advice on strategic and investment matters while also taking on special oversight for Good Media Co. Given her wide-ranging experience and a proven track record, her contribution to the Good GlammGroup’ supward trajectory will continue to be pivotal.

    Priyanka Gill joins Kalaari Capital as a venture partner. She is already a founding board member of CXXO. The CXXO initiative by Kalaari Capital is dedicated to supporting companies led by female founders, aligning seamlessly with Priyanka’s broader commitment to championing entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs. Priyanka will now head the CXXO initiative to scale more female founders in the startup ecosystem.

    Commenting on this news, Good Glamm Group group co-founder Priyanka Gill commented, “I am thrilled to embark on this new chapter in my career. Joining Kalaari Capital as a venture partner- it is an exciting opportunity for me to align my passion for fostering entrepreneurship in the startup ecosystem. Kalaari Capital was the first institutional investor when I began my entrepreneurial journey- the support and advice I received was vital.

    I retain close ties with the Good Glamm Group as group co- founder and am confident that as a group we will continue to flourish. I am honoured to be elevated to the board of the Good Glamm Group. As chairperson of Good Media Co, I am invested in assuring the pivotal content-to-commerce flywheel that built the Good Glamm Group continues performs even better.

    This transition allows me to contribute strategically to Good Glamm Group’s vision while dedicating more time towards my passion to support emerging entrepreneurs, particularly women entrepreneurs under the aegis of Kalaari Capital and CXXO.”

    Good Glamm Group founder and CEO Darpan Sanghvi expressed his confidence in Priyanka’s elevation, stating, “Priyanka has played an extremely instrumental role at Good Glamm Group. We started the journey of content-to-commerce together in 2020 and have since expanded the company together.

    For some time now, Priyanka has been helping me through our investments and strategic initiatives and we are thrilled to announce Priyanka’s elevation to the Board of Good Glamm Group and her new role as chairperson of Good Media Co.

    This move is a testament to her exceptional leadership and vision. I am equally excited for Priyanka to join our friends at Kalaari Capital and am confident that Priyanka will continue to make valuable contributions to the success of the Good Glamm Group and leave an indelible mark in her new role at Kalaari Capital.”

    Kalaari Capital founder & managing director Vani Kola said “I first met Priyanka over a decade ago as the founder of POPxo. We invested in the company and I have seen Priyanka evolve as an impactful and empathetic leader. I am delighted to welcome Priyanka onboard Kalaari Capital as a venture partner advising our D2C portfolio. Her experience as an entrepreneur places her exceptionally well to support and guide founders and companies.

    She is already a founding board member of CXXO, a Kalaari Capital initiative that supports female founders. As she goes on to head the CXXO initiative to help more women-led companies scale.”

    Priyanka’s move to a more strategic role has been part of a planned transition over the last 12 months, driven by her passion for supporting emerging entrepreneurs, with a particular focus on empowering women leaders in the startup ecosystem.

  • Whoppl launches Whoppl Studios Network

    Whoppl launches Whoppl Studios Network

    Mumbai: Whoppl, a leading innovator in the content creation industry, is thrilled to announce the launch of its state-of-the-art studio, designed to cater to all content creation needs. With its new launch, Whoppl aims to leverage its content expertise to help creators across categories shoot and produce high-quality content while fostering their creative potential.

    Catalyzed by flexible office hours, remote work and renewal of passion pursuits, India’s creator landscape is growing by an annual compound rate of 25 per cent. According to Kalaari Capital’s report,  the current state of 450 Million social media users, India has about 80 million content creators in India. Brands are tapping into hyperlocal micro influencers‘ to boost connection, especially through the short-video format. To support brands, creators and individuals creating content alike, In a first of its kind initiative, Whoppl has announced the launch of Whoppl Studio Network – a one of its kind network of  collaborative shooting spaces to help produce content in a cost-effective manner.

    “Whoppl is excited to revolutionize the content creation industry in India,” said Whoppl CEO Ramya Ramachandran. She added. ” One of the unique aspects of Whoppl’s studios is the ability for influencers to book it on an hourly basis. India is one of the front-runners in terms of both content creators and consumers, hence we believe it is important to empower them. We want to make content creation accessible to all, regardless of their level of expertise or budget. Our studio aims to empower content creators by providing them with an unparalleled platform to unleash their creativity. We believe it would encourage more creators to come forward and showcase their talent.As India’s first content to commerce company, we are bullish on the role creators will play in the larger scheme of things. We are kick starting with our first studio but the larger goal is to reach Indian micro markets and empower creators across India and eventually reach global markets too.”

    The newly launched studios are dedicated to catering to the needs of Instagram content creators, offering an aesthetically pleasing ambiance that sets the stage for captivating visuals. The space is specially curated for like minded creators to hangout, create & collaborate. The space is primarily created for all things content and also meet all production needs- mainly ideas, backgrounds, props, technology & equipment. This network of collaborative shooting space will enable brands and creators to come together , inspire and create high value content at scale and real time.

    With making such collaborative shooting spaces available across Tier II & III markets in the next five years, Whoppl aims to pioneer and aggregate the world of co-shooting spaces while enabling creators, individuals and brands across the spectrum. Whoppl has also  invested in one of its kind AI based platform which has an aggregated database of 200M from the globe and hyper localised segment for India & Bharath.The platform matches influencers to brands, budgets, marketing & communication along with intent , need and availability. This technology will truly democratise the role of content creators driving commerce and Business topline across India & Bharath.

    Whoppl takes pride in being a creative agnostic company, offering a platform that welcomes influencers from all backgrounds and genres. The studios will not only benefit content creators but  will also support brands,  fostering an inclusive community and strengthening community connections. 

  • AI takes centre stage at the 12 edition of TiE Delhi-NCR’s India internet day

    AI takes centre stage at the 12 edition of TiE Delhi-NCR’s India internet day

    Mumbai: TiE Delhi-NCR, a leading organisation fostering entrepreneurship nationally, is all set to host the 12 editions of India Internet Day (iDay2023), a premier event that brings together the brightest minds of the tech industry. Scheduled for 24, 25 and 29 August  2023, the event will take place across India’s leading startup hubs – Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Bhubaneswar respectively.

    iDay is part of TiE Delhi-NCR’s commitment to nurturing an ecosystem where technopreneurs and investors converge to drive India’s tech landscape forward. This year iDay 2023 themed AI Powered India: Vision & Reality,  aims to unlock AI’s immense possibilities and potential for our nation.

    iDay will delve into how AI is shaping the future of India as it revolutionizes customer experiences, optimises processes, and drives business outcomes for startups and established companies while driving economic growth. With AI at the forefront, the 12 editions of India Internet Day aim to highlight discussions, propel innovation, and cultivate collaborations which will definitely shape the future of India’s tech landscape.

    The exceptional lineup of speakers for the event includes institution builders, leading tech-like entrepreneurs, the nation’s top investors and policymakers.  Expert panels will feature luminaries like Priyank Kharge-hon’ble minister for IT/BT and rural development & panchayat raj, govt of Karnataka | Bhavish Aggarwal – co-founder, Ola Cabs & Ola Electric| Rana Barua- group CEO, Havas India| Vani Kola – MD, Kalaari Capital | Ankur Warikoo – founder, WebVeda |  Priyanka Gill – group co-founder, Good Glamm Group & CEO – Good Media Co |Peyush Bansal – co-founder & chief executive & people officer, Lenskart | Deep Kalra – founder & chairman, MakeMyTrip |Rajan Anandan – MD, Peak XV partners & surge |Asish Mohapatra – co-founder & CEO, OfBusiness & Oxyzo |Anshoo Sharma – co-founder & CEO, Magicpin & many more.

    TiE Delhi-NCR Executive Director Geetika Dayal said, “After a successful debut in 2012 hosted by TiE Delhi-NCR, India Internet Day has grown from being relevant to indispensable for stakeholders across the ecosystem.

    Last year, India Internet Day (#iDay) expanded to two cities – Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR connecting the two startup capitals of the country. It is significant that Bhubaneswar is the next stop in this expansion.  TiE Delhi-NCR is delighted to collaborate with TiE Bangalore and TiE Bhubaneswar to bring iDay to the three startup hubs.

    This year’s event promises to ignite conversations about AI, innovation, and responsible growth. We are thrilled to provide a platform where game-changers can unite to shape the trajectory of India’s tech future.”

    iDay 2023 provides an unrivalled platform to connect with the who’s who of the internet industry in India at more than one level. It is an opportunity for founders to connect with visionary leaders and trailblazing startups to learn and foster meaningful collaborations and partnerships. Startup founders get an opportunity to mingle with potential investors, and collaborators, with initiatives like Bank on Breakfast, Lunch with Leaders & Lunch with Investors. What’s more, this year select groundbreaking AI startups from India stand a chance to pitch their tech and disruptive solutions as part of an electrifying showcase.

    The Conference is supported by Startup India, Havas Media Network India, PeakXV, Microsoft, Vaco Binary Semantics, SAP, AWS, Lufthansa, CRED, STPi and State Govt.of Odisha.

  • Edtech startup Creative Galileo raises $7.5 million in Series A funding

    Edtech startup Creative Galileo raises $7.5 million in Series A funding

    Mumbai: Early learning ed-tech platform Creative Galileo has raised $7.5 million in a Series A funding round from Kalaari Capital, Affirma Capital, East Ventures, Valiant Employee Investment Fund, and angel investors. This brings Creative Galileo’s total funding to $10 million, including a pre-series A round of $2.5 million announced in October last year.

    Creative Galileo offers a curriculum for children through narratives, gamified content, interactive learning journeys, and detailed parent updates.

    The company will use the newly infused funds to scale up, accelerate hiring across the teams in multiple geographies, introduce regional languages and further strengthen the research and development of the platform.

    Creative Galileo was founded in July 2020 by Prerna A Jhunjhunwala and co-founded by Nikhil Naik, ex-Vuclip. As the country’s first-of-its-kind character-based early learning platform for kids aged 3–10, Creative Galileo claims to be the only early learning app to be ranked in the top 20 education apps in the Play Store, India. The company has forged over 20 partnerships with the country’s top content studios in just over a year. With plans to expand in Southeast Asia, Creative Galileo recently started its foray with international alliances such as EBS Korea, an educational content specialist broadcasting company. 

    Creative Galileo founder Prerna A Jhunjhunwala said, “We are excited to bring our new partners on board. In the last year, we have successfully built and provided millions of children access to high-quality content in our Digital and Educational Equality mission. We want to enable bespoke learning for children across the globe through their favorite characters to strengthen their foundation during their early years, which will also help develop and strengthen critical thinking, confidence, cognitive skills, and emotional intelligence.”

    “Our soon-to-be “multilingual” platform will become the largest universe of kids’ character-driven learning platforms with a curriculum designed by experts to meet the foundational learning requirements,” she added.

    Kalaari Capital MD Vani Kola said, “We are excited to strengthen our partnership with Prerna and Nikhil as they continue their journey of transforming learning experiences for children across the globe. In the last six months, they have achieved strong growth with low marketing spend. Creative Galileo has also consistently ranked among the top 20 educational apps in India’s play store—the only early learning app to achieve this distinction. This is a testament to the founders’ relentless focus and strong execution.”

    “We are glad to welcome Creative Galileo into East Ventures’ network and support them in strengthening the education ecosystem in the region. We believe the approach of Creative Galileo will provide fun and exciting learning experiences, and we are looking forward to experiencing more innovation from the team,” said East Ventures managing partner Koh Wai Kit.

    HolonIQ recently listed Creative Galileo on their annual list of the 100 most promising EdTech start-ups from India & South Asia. 

  • POPxo bullish on growing business via regional content in India

    POPxo bullish on growing business via regional content in India

    MUMBAI: POPxo, the digital community for women launches in Marathi, Bangla, Tamil, and Telugu. Each language vertical will have a dedicated team of writers and editors creating female-focused original content (text, video and social). The move is part of POPxo’s strategy to expand their user-base by addressing new audience groups to further strengthen reach and engagement.

    POPxo founder and CEO Priyanka Gill, “The next wave of users who come online will be accessing the internet in their native language. There is a massive supply-demand gap for female-focused regional language content. The launch of the POPxo platform in four more languages will address this exciting opportunity and power the next stage of growth for the company.”

    It (English and Hindi) has over 39 million MAUs (monthly active users) across all platforms. Every month, the team creates 1500 stories, 80 videos resulting in users spending over 3 million hours consuming POPxo content.

    POPxo head of content Ruchira Bose said, “Expanding our language portfolio is key in maintaining a strong growth trajectory for POPxo. Our current data-driven content model is scalable. We will use our learnings in English and Hindi to create and distribute relatable content to our new user groups,”

    The company has raised a total of $12m in funding to date. The last investment round was led by Neoplux and OPPO, with participation from existing investors Kalaari Capital, Chiratae Ventures, Summit Media, and GREE Ventures. POPxo launched private label commerce in July 2018.

  • Havas media bagged the integrated media mandate for BlueStone.com

    Havas media bagged the integrated media mandate for BlueStone.com

    MUMBAI: Havas media group has won the integrated media mandate of BlueStone.com, one of the leading online store for jewellery and accessories. The business of BlueStone.com is estimated at over INR 35 crore.

     

     “We are aggressively scaling up BlueStone. Havas media has the attitude, agility and skill to partner with us in this growth. We are glad to have them on board and see them as long term partners,” asserted BlueStone.com CEO Gaurav Kushwaha.

     

    BlueStone.com CMO Pushkar Jain said, “The Digital at Core philosophy of Havas Media is in line with our thinking. Their integrated media strengths further gave us the confidence that they know how to in navigate this territory.”

     

    “We were impressed with Havas Media’s passion and commitment towards BlueStone.com. We look forward to this association,” continued BlueStone.com VP marketing Ahshul Khandelwal.

     

    Speaking on the win, Havas media group-India and South Asia CEO Anita Nayyar asserted, “We are delighted at this win. Havas media has been growing at three times the market only because of our aggressive new business acquisitions. BlueStone adds another feather to our cap. We look forward to working with the very enterprising BlueStone team.”

     

    Havas media group-India managing director Mohit Joshi voiced, “Havas Media’s unique proposition focused on meaningful brands has given us an edge in acquiring new businesses. This win strengthens our new age client (dotcom) portfolio and further boosts our Bangalore operations.”

     

    BlueStone has received funding form Accel Partners, Kalaari Capital and Saama Capital, IvyCap Ventures, Dragoneer and Ratan Tata.

  • Germin8 raises $3 million venture funding from Kalaari Capital

    Germin8 raises $3 million venture funding from Kalaari Capital

    MUMBAI: Germin8, a Big Data analytics company, has raised USD 3 million in Series-A funding from Kalaari Capital. The funds will be used to strengthen Germin8’s position in India through increased sales and marketing, and fuel its foray into international markets. A significant portion of the funds will also be deployed for R&D and new product development.

     

    Since the launch of its first product in 2012, Germin8 has leveraged its proprietary technology platform and algorithms to build and reinforce its position as a leading Big Data analytics firm. Germin8, through its proprietary tools, helps companies make more informed decisions in real time, based on what their stakeholders are saying in the public domain including social media and news, and in company-owned sources like emails and chats.

     

    Germin8’s technology platform is, today, used across marketing, corporate communications, customer care and sales functions at over 100 leading brands such as MTV, Marico, ICICI Prudential, Godrej Industries, Johnson & Johnson and Asian Paints. Germin8’s technology is also being used by several national and international media and advertising agencies including GroupM, Publicis, Dentsu Aegis, Rediffusion and Ormax Media.

     

    According to Kumar Shiralagi, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital, “We believe that in a competitive, evolving landscape, Germin8 has all the ingredients to be a global player especially because of the strength and flexibility of its technology platform, and its strong focus on innovation and customer satisfaction”.  Underscoring the importance of this investment, Kumar added, “Today no company can afford to underestimate the impact of social media on its business and Germin8 allows companies to monitor, analyse and take the right business decisions in a timely way.”

     

    Germin8 was founded by Dr. Ranjit Nair, a PhD in Computer Science from University of Southern California, and Raj Nair, a strategy consultant and alumnus of IIT-B and IIM-A. Germin8 now has a team of over 50 experienced professionals from top engineering and management institutes.

     

    “This is an important milestone for Germin8. Since our launch in 2012, we’ve been adding value to our customers in India by delivering actionable insights and analytics. With this investment by Kalaari Capital, we hope to make our technology available to companies outside India as well, even as we aim to consolidate our position as a significant analytics player in the Indian market,” says Ranjit Nair, CEO of Germin8.

     

    Kalaari Capital invests in early-stage technology-oriented companies in India. Their focus is on companies which are capturing new markets, providing innovative solutions, and creating wealth for entrepreneurs and investors. Mosaic Capital acted as the exclusive advisor to the company. Mosaic Capital (www.mosaiccap.com ) is a boutique investment bank specialised in M&A and Private Equity, with offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru.