Creator economy startup Rigi raises Rs 100 crore from Elevation Capital

Marquee angel investors such as cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kunal Shah of Cred, Amit Agarwal of NoBroker, Chakradhar Gade of Country Delight and producer Sharan Hegde also participated in the round.

Rigi, founded in 2021 by Swapnil Sourav and Ananya Singhal, provides creators and influencers with tools to grow, manage, and monetize their communities, including membership management, course and workshop creation, and integration with social platforms. helps.

CEO Sourav told VC Circle that it plans to use the funds to invest in engineering to make more devices, venture into more categories of devices, and expand geographically in Southeast Asia.

“We feel in Southeast Asia, it will do a great job for product creators,” he said, echoing similar behavior from creators in the geography to India. The startup has already started its operations in Indonesia.

The latest round comes nine months after Rigi closed its $10 million-Series A round in April 2022. So far, the Bengaluru-based startup has raised $25 million across three rounds in the 14 months since its inception.

The startup is the second venture of Saurav and Singhal, both alumni of BITS Pilani. He previously founded real-money gaming platform HalaPlay, which was acquired by Nazara Technologies and Delta Corp in 2020.

Rigi claims to have helped over 10,000 creators across 30+ categories monetize their audience through channels like WhatsApp, Telegram, Paid Courses, among others. With the tools, creators can focus on expanding and engaging with their audiences instead of spending time on managing operations and building technology.

Mayank Khanduja, partner at Elevation Capital, said, “What got us excited (about Rigi) was the overall suite of products that a user can get.”

Elevation has previously backed startups such as ShareChat, Turnip and Headphone, all of which support the growing maker economy.

“The creator economy is a new paradigm of employment. But it is a nascent ecosystem. All creators need the tools to become more efficient and grow,” Priyank Swaroop, Partner, Accel India, said in a statement.