Rigi, a platform which allows creators and influencers to grow, manage and monetise their communities on Friday raises Rs 100 crore led by Elevation Capital, with participation from Accel, Stellaris, Sequoia. 

The round saw participation from angels such as Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Kunal Shah (Cred), Amit (NoBroker), Chakradhar Gade (Country Delight), Sharan Hegde (@financewithsharan) among others on their cap table. 

With the closing of this round, Rigi has raised USD 25 million across 3 rounds in 14 months since inception.

Founded in 2021 by Swapnil Saurav and Ananya Singhal, Rigi focuses on ‘knowledge creators’ in areas such as education, fitness, gaming etc. 

This allows creators to focus on scaling and better engaging with their audience instead of spending time on managing operations & creating technology, both of which require large investments in people.

Swapnil Saurav, Co-founder of Rigi said “The increasing use of social media and the growing consumption of online content have led to the emergence of "knowledge creators" in various fields, including education, health and fitness, skills training, and gaming. These creators are sought out by users for specialized advice on these topics. As a natural progression of this trend, users are now willing to pay these creators for personalized advice rather than relying on a generic, one-size-fits-all approach. Our goal is to support these creators in this aspect of their journey, so they can focus on what they do best: adding value to their audiences' lives.”

Globally, the creator economy is estimated to be worth over $100 Bn. With the proliferation of social and content platforms over the last decade, content creation & consumption have grown exponentially. This has led to creators in specific niches establishing themselves as thought leaders / domain experts, accumulating large bases of followers across platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and others. On the demand side, user trust is gravitating away from platforms to creators. Rigi is empowering these individual creators, who often do not have large teams assisting them, but command huge amounts of trust (especially in high value categories such as education, advisory, guidance etc.) to establish themselves as digital businesses, by giving them the tools to manage and monetise their audience better.

Mayank Khanduja, Partner at Elevation Capital said "At Elevation, we have been firm believers of the growth potential of the creator economy as demonstrated by our past investments in companies such as Sharechat, Turnip and Headfone. Rigi team’s customer obsession and rapid iteration have led them to an extremely strong product market fit among creators in the knowledge economy. In just under 2 years of their existence, Rigi has enabled thousands of creators to become entrepreneurs  - a testament to the unparalleled customer love they have received. Therefore, we see the potential for Rigi to emerge as a global leader in this space built out of India, and we are super excited to partner with them in the next phase of their journey."

Ananya and Swapnil, both batchmates from BITS Pilani, had previously founded HalaPlay, which was acquired by Nazara Technologies and Delta Corp in 2020. While working with social media influencers at HalaPlay, they recognized the growing presence of online creators and the potential of influencers' communities, so they decided to focus on assisting these influencers in engaging and monetizing their audiences more effectively.

Since its inception in October 2021, Rigi has helped more than 10,000 creators across 30+ different categories. In the last 12 months, the company has grown 40X. Recently, Rigi also started its platform in Indonesia and has started seeing good traction there. The company plans to use the funds raised to expand into newer categories as well as into other geographies.

Prayank Swaroop at Accel India  said “Creator economy is a new paradigm of employment. It is here to stay in India, South East Asia, and globally. But this is a nascent ecosystem. All creators need tools to be more efficient and to grow. Rigi has created a world class suite of products that creates a 10X positive impact on the creator businesses. Accel is very happy to be part of Rigi's journey.”

Rahul Chowdhri at Stellaris Venture  said “Creator economy is on a rise with their increasing influence on consumer choices. Rigi has been a pioneer in helping these influencers manage and monetise their communities. Swapnil and Ananya have demonstrated a keen eye for building customer insights and significantly increased earnings for thousands of creators.”