Creator economy startup Rigi bags Rs100 crore from Elevation Capital, MS Dhoni and others

• ByStartup Story Team     |    January 25, 2023

With involvement from Accel, Stellaris, and Sequoia, Rigi, a platform that aids creators in monetizing their viewers, has raised 100 crore ($12.3 million). Elevation Capital spearheaded the fundraising effort. 

Famous angel investors like cricketer , Cred’s Kunal Shah, NoBroker’s Amit Agarwal, Nation Delight’s Chakradhar Gade, and founder Sharan Hegde, among others, also took part in the round. 

Rigi, founded in 2021 by Swapnil Saurav and Ananya Singhal, offers tools to artists and influencers to establish, manage, and monetize their communities through programmes and workshops creation, subscription management, and social platform integration.

According to chief executive Saurav, the company intends to use the money to invest in engineering to build more instruments, venture into additional instrument categories, and expand geographically throughout Southeast Asia.

“We really feel in Southeast Asia, this product will work very properly for creators,” he stated, adding that the regional makers exhibit behaviour similar to that of Indian creators. In Indonesia, the startup has already started operating. 

The most recent round was announced around nine months after Rigi’s $10 million-Collection A round ended in April 2022. Since its founding 14 months ago, the Bengaluru-based business has raised $25 million in three waves.

The BITS Pilani graduates Saurav and Singhal’s firm is their second business venture. They had previously founded the HalaPlay real-money gaming platform, which Delta Corp and Nazara Applied Sciences bought in 2020. 

Rigi claims to have assisted more than 10,000 authors across 30+ categories in monetizing their audience through channels including Whatsapp, Telegram, and sponsored programmes, among others. With the tools, producers can focus on growing and engaging with their audience rather than investing time on running businesses and developing technology.

“What excited us (about Rigi) was the holistic suite of merchandise {that a} consumer might get,” stated Mayank Khanduja, adding that the tools are enabling producers to monetize the audience early in their journey. 

In the past, Elevation has supported firms including Sharechat, Turnip, and Headfone, all of which support the expanding creative economy.

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