India’s creator economy has attracted another notable investment, this time involving communications giant Adfactors PR and investor Vikas Khemani. The two have acquired a stake in Bengaluru-based creator marketing company WLDD, signalling growing interest from established communications and investment players in businesses built around creators, digital culture and online communities.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Khemani, Founder and CIO of Carnelian Asset Management & Advisors, made the investment in his personal capacity. Adfactors PR CEO Nijay N. Nair is also expected to join WLDD’s board following the deal.
The investment arrives at a moment when creator marketing is becoming much harder for large brands to treat as a side channel. Influencers, online communities and short-form content are now influencing everything from product launches to reputation management.
WLDD Has Expanded Far Beyond Meme Marketing
WLDD began in 2018 as a company focused heavily on meme marketing, but its business has changed considerably since then. Founded by Arihant Jain, Jaidev Kesti and Vivekanand Kilari, the company has steadily moved into creator campaigns, digital content production, distribution, branding and technology-led marketing services.
That expansion has helped WLDD build relationships with major brands including Amazon, Coca-Cola, Spotify, Netflix, Tata Motors, Philips, Rapido, Tinder and Audible. The company reportedly employs more than 350 people across Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi and has recorded strong growth over the past few years.
The business has effectively moved from creating viral internet content to building a wider infrastructure around how brands reach digital audiences.
WLDD Is Building a Broader Creator Marketing Ecosystem
Rather than operating as a single influencer marketing agency, WLDD has developed several businesses that handle different parts of the creator and content process. Its Solo platform connects brands with creators and combines technology, artificial intelligence and human campaign management to help companies plan and execute creator campaigns.
The company also operates Meme’d, which focuses on adapting content into formats suited to social and short-form platforms. Crunchy Studios handles production, while Imagined Studio works across branding, product design and digital experiences.
Together, these businesses give WLDD more control over the complete content cycle. A brand can potentially develop an idea, produce the content, identify creators, distribute the campaign and extend its reach without moving between several unrelated agencies.
ScoopWhoop Gives WLDD Its Own Media Audience
WLDD has also been building its presence in digital publishing. In 2025, the company acquired select intellectual property belonging to ScoopWhoop from The Good Glamm Group in a deal reportedly valued at around Rs 20 crore.
That acquisition gave WLDD something different from its agency and creator marketplace businesses: an established consumer media brand with its own audience. ScoopWhoop has long been associated with viral digital content, entertainment and youth-focused internet culture in India.
Owning media properties alongside creator marketing capabilities could give WLDD more options when designing campaigns. Instead of depending entirely on external platforms and influencers for distribution, the company can combine creators with its own publishing channels.
Adfactors PR Is Moving Closer to the Creator Economy
For Adfactors PR, the investment provides a direct route into creator-led communication. The agency already works with hundreds of brands, but the way companies manage reputation and visibility is changing. A corporate announcement can now move through traditional media, social platforms, creator accounts and community conversations at almost the same time.
Creator expertise therefore becomes increasingly useful to a public relations business. WLDD brings experience in internet culture, content production, creator relationships and social distribution, areas that can complement traditional PR services.
The investment also reflects a broader change across the communications industry. Public relations, influencer marketing and social media were once managed as separate disciplines. Clients increasingly expect them to work together.
Vikas Khemani Is Betting on the Attention Economy
Vikas Khemani’s involvement adds an investment perspective to the deal. He participated personally rather than through Carnelian Asset Management & Advisors and has pointed to the growing importance of businesses built around digital attention.
Advertising spending has gradually shifted toward platforms where creators hold significant influence. Audiences often spend more time watching individuals they follow than interacting directly with branded content, which has changed how marketers think about reach.
Companies that can organise creators, distribute content and measure performance are therefore becoming an increasingly valuable part of the marketing ecosystem. WLDD sits directly inside that shift.
WLDD Plans to Invest in Creators, Technology and Media
The new capital is expected to support WLDD’s next stage of expansion. The company plans to strengthen its creator marketplace, improve technology used for campaign execution and continue investing in its media and brand-building businesses.
Technology will be particularly important as creator campaigns become larger. Managing a few influencers manually is relatively straightforward. Coordinating hundreds or thousands of creators across multiple platforms is not.
Creator discovery, campaign approvals, content tracking, performance measurement and payments all become operational challenges at scale. Platforms that automate parts of that process while keeping human oversight could become increasingly important to agencies and large advertisers.
AI Could Play a Bigger Role in Creator Campaign Management
WLDD has already incorporated AI into parts of its creator marketing operation through Solo. The technology can potentially help brands identify suitable creators, analyse audiences, organise campaigns and evaluate performance more quickly.
AI does not remove the human side of creator marketing, though. Brand fit, humour, cultural relevance and creator relationships remain difficult to reduce entirely to software.
The more realistic direction is a combination of automated campaign infrastructure and human decision-making. WLDD appears to be building around that model rather than presenting AI as a replacement for creators or campaign managers.
Creator Marketing Is Becoming Part of Core Brand Strategy
The significance of the Adfactors PR investment extends beyond the size of the deal, which remains undisclosed. It shows how closely creator marketing is becoming connected with mainstream advertising and communications.
Brands increasingly want campaigns that can generate media coverage, circulate through creator communities, become short-form social content and create conversation all at once. That makes the traditional separation between PR, social media, advertising and influencer marketing much less useful.
WLDD has spent the past several years assembling businesses around precisely that overlap. With Adfactors PR and Vikas Khemani now backing the company, its attempt to build a broader creator, content and media ecosystem has gained another layer of support.
What the Investment Means for the Creator Economy
The deal is another indication that creator marketing is moving from experimental budgets into a more established part of the advertising industry. Large agencies are increasingly looking for technology, creator networks and specialist teams that can help them understand audiences shaped by social platforms.
That does not mean every traditional agency will suddenly become a creator company. It does suggest that creator expertise is becoming difficult to ignore.
For WLDD, the investment provides capital and strategic relationships that could help it expand further. For Adfactors PR, it offers access to a creator-first operation without having to build the entire capability from scratch. The combination says quite a lot about where modern communications is heading.
Sources
BuzzInContent:
https://www.buzzincontent.com/news/adfactors-pr-vikas-khemani-pick-up-stake-in-creator-marketing-firm-wldd-12480736
PRmoment India:
https://www.prmoment.in/pr-news/adfactors-pr-vikas-khemani-buy-into-scoopwhoop-owner-wldd-signals-pr-push-into-the-creator-economy