MAM
Eloelo secures $22M in pre-series B round led by Courtside Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners
Mumbai: Eloelo, India’s leading live entertainment and social gaming platform, announced raising $22 million in its pre-series B round. The round was jointly led by Courtside Ventures and Griffin Gaming Partners, joined by MIXI Inc along with existing backers Waterbridge Ventures, Lumikai Fund, Kalaari Capital, Convivialite Ventures and Rocket Capital investing in the round.
With this fresh funding, Eloelo has now raised a total of $37.5 million. The funds from this round will be utilized to forge partnerships with creators, develop innovative tools across AI & AR for them, attract a broader pool of tech and product talent, and strengthen revenue generation and monetisation initiatives. The round comes 14 months after its Series A round of $13 million in June 2022.
“Courtside is thrilled to co-lead the investment in Eloelo alongside Griffin Gaming Partners,” said Courtside Ventures Partner Kai Bond. “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”.
Eloelo, ranks among the top three apps in India on the Google Play Store in Entertainment, combining audio and video live chatrooms with interactive games and shows that enable millions of users and creators to connect with each other. The platform has over 37 million users and 120K creators.
Eloelo CEO & founder Saurabh 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. Our growth of 400% Y-o-Y showcases the love users have given the product. This fundraising in such a testing macro environment further enforces the belief our investors have in our vision”.
Eloelo is leading with a unique blend of Live Entertainment with Games and Communities — a contemporary social network tailored to the communication preferences of young Indians. The company’s primary distinguishing features include its ability to get users to simply push-t0-talk inside various chat rooms, in-house games integrated into live streams and its focus on clean entertainment for family audiences.
“At Griffin, we’re inspired by India’s rapidly evolving market landscape, led by innovative companies like Eloelo. Through the magic of gamification, Eloelo is transforming live streams into captivating experiences that translate to deep audience engagement. The platform has attracted a vast community of content creators, driving its growth to nearly 40 million users — a striking testament to the potential ahead for Eloelo”, said Griffin Gaming Partners managing director & co-founder Nick Tuosto.
A CYG report estimates the global live-streaming market at $46 billion, with India’s current share at $2 billion. Eloelo is steadily launching various ways for creators to generate revenue, including gifting inside chatrooms, participation in group audio calls, and hosting game shows.
“As EloElo’s first VC partner, we are impressed with their scale and evolution from a live gaming app to a platform bringing audiences together in multiple live formats. Its immersive, engaging, product-led approach has made it the go-to app for audiences and creators alike. With this funding, Eloelo is set to further establish itself as the preferred digital destination for India’s social and entertainment needs”, said Waterbridge Ventures partner Anjali Sosale.
Lumikai Fund’s founding general partner Salone Sehgal said, “Saurabh and Team Eloelo’s bold vision to design a truly India-first, participatory social entertainment platform, is disrupting existing entertainment mediums like TV. Eloelo’s category-leading interactive formats have transcended gender, age and language barriers to become a true digital destination.”
The App is live in six languages and aims to add many more in the next few months seeing the adoption from Tier two, three audiences. It uses a blend of AI and manual content moderation to maintain a secure environment for all users.
MAM
Madison World to launch AI platform M BrAIn for media planning
Agency group invests about $1 million as it shifts to AI driven growth planning.
MUMBAI: If media planning once ran on spreadsheets and gut instinct, the next chapter may run on algorithms and curiosity. Madison World is preparing to roll out the first version of its proprietary artificial intelligence platform Madison M BrAIn in early April, as the independent agency group accelerates its transition toward AI driven planning and product led media services.
The platform, expected to involve an investment of around $1 million, is designed to reshape how the agency approaches strategy by combining internal knowledge, external data sources and advanced AI models into a single intelligence ecosystem.
According to Madison Media, OOH and Hiveminds partner and group CEO Ajit Varghese the initiative forms part of a larger structural rethink within the organisation. “Traditionally agencies built frameworks around media planning and allocation. We are redesigning that structure into what we call a Growth Planning System (GPS),” Varghese said.
The shift reflects a growing belief that effective media strategy must begin earlier in the decision making process. Instead of jumping directly to channel allocation, planners must first decode the market itself identifying consumer barriers, purchase triggers and the core challenges facing a brand.
Once those insights are mapped, agencies can build clearer growth agendas for clients and design media strategies that connect more closely with business outcomes.
To support that approach, Madison has built Madison M BrAIn as what it describes as a human AI cognitive ecosystem. Acting as a central intelligence hub, the platform aggregates proprietary insights alongside external data sources and large language models, enabling planners to access deeper market intelligence before building campaign strategies.
Varghese said one of the core objectives is to democratise knowledge across the organisation. “In the past, this level of understanding was largely available to senior leaders or experienced strategists. With Madison M BrAIn, even a junior planner should be able to access the same intelligence and approach clients with a far more informed perspective,” he said.
The agency has already implemented the new planning philosophy internally and completed three months of testing for the AI platform, with early trials showing encouraging results in terms of learning capability and system performance.
While the first version relied on global large language models, Madison is now developing its own proprietary Small Language Model (SLM) to serve as the core of the M BrAIn ecosystem.
“The SLM will be able to read global LLMs, but the LLMs cannot read the SLM,” Varghese explained. “That ensures all the intelligence we build remains within the Madison ecosystem and strengthens our proprietary knowledge base.”
The first version of Madison M BrAIn is expected to go live in early April, with a more refined version targeted by the end of June. Over time, the platform will integrate additional external data streams and APIs including consumer insight platforms, social listening tools and client datasets.
These integrations are expected to enhance the system’s learning capability and enable it to generate increasingly sophisticated strategic recommendations.
Although the platform is currently being deployed for internal use, Madison sees potential for it to evolve into a licensable product in the future.
“At the moment, our focus is to stabilise and strengthen M BrAIn internally. But over time there is potential for this to become a product that could be licensed externally,” Varghese said.
The AI platform is also part of a wider technology transformation underway at the agency group. Alongside M BrAIn, Madison is building a broader digital infrastructure called the Catalyst operating system, which aims to integrate operational processes, data and product platforms into a unified ecosystem.
This broader technology stack could require an additional $1 million to $1.5 million investment over time, though spending will be phased and reviewed regularly.
“We are evaluating progress every three months and prioritising the most critical capabilities first,” Varghese said.
Madison expects the full AI and operating ecosystem to be fully functional within 12 to 18 months, positioning the agency to combine human strategy with machine intelligence as the advertising industry enters its next data driven phase.
