Two college friends with a shared love for anime and fandom created a space where fans could openly connect, discuss, and create a community.
Abhishek Mehta and Dhawal Agrawal founded Quriverse in 2020 with the aim of creating a platform where fans can interact and engage with each other remotely in a real time manner. It also serves as a platform for them to develop and monetize the content they create.
Newly introduced to the world of fandom in college, Mehta and Agarwal soon realized how each fan base was scattered over multiple platforms. people had to jump from platform to platform in order to target different aspects of the community.
Mehta, co-founder and CEO of the company told Entrackr, “We streamline the entire process onto one platform.”
Recognizing that social media platforms were not designed for the anime community, the duo created a space that gives creators tools to create content, build community, and monetize their work in one place. The platform also helps creators and artists create and sell digital artworks, commissioned work and services.Â
The Bengaluru-based platform currently has four key offerings – anime tailored network, community chats, interactive features, and a creator store. The first is a network designed for e users who want to create and share artwork, animation, and live streams. The community chats and interactive features help users get in touch with each other and create anime watch lists or manga reading lists.
The recent addition to the platform is the creator store- this is meant for fans who are also digital artists and animators. It works as a marketplace to buy and sell fan-made videos, digital arts, and commissions.
Although the platform is currently focused on the anime community, it aims on expanding to be a platform for fans of all kinds. Explaining the ultimate goal for Quriverse Mehta said, “We want to expand but the idea is first to nail down the anime community. Our goal is to build a global platform for the fandom communities out there and help them monetize on it.”
Although the platform is available globally, it is currently focused on the Indian market. The duo chose to concentrate on anime and its fan base in the initial phases of the company after noticing its rising popularity in the Indian market.
The company generates revenue two ways – through commissions on each transaction happening on the creator store and through extra customizations on avatars, themes etc on the in-app marketplace.Â
The two-year-old company recently raised its pre-seed funding round in July 2022 which saw participation from investors 100x.vc, Mplier Ventures, Mayur Zanawar, and other angel investors.
The platform is used by over 20k anime fans and 100 Ani- creators. Its beta has around 1100 users with a WAU ~ 40%. The company aims on onboarding around 10k more users by the end of January.
Animation Xpress reported on a survey conducted by JetSynthesys on the anime consumption in India. This study revealed that 83% of the individuals were biased towards anime across all animated content options with Naruto, Death Note, and Attack on Titan being the top three favorites among the Indian audience.
Aiming to meet the demands of such a large percent of audience just in India, the company is also planning to put out features like Ani-games, Ani-theme group chats, and releasing the app in multiple languages. The company also wants to form a creator academy to help build the content creator users as well.
