The acquisition logic worth studying
BTG, a Mumbai-based agency founded in 2018 by Aaliya Amrin, Eman Batliwalla and Danisha Kohli, joins One Hand Clap (OHC) inside WTF. Its client roster reads like a who's-who of culture-led brands — Netflix, IKEA, Volkswagen, Bumble, Marriott, Nykaa, Soho House. The structure matters here: BTG's founders keep creative and operational control, while WTF supplies capital, infrastructure and network. That's not a holding-company buyout; it's a community-of-experts model, and it mirrors the philosophy behind every membership program that actually retains holders rather than churns them after the first perk.
The 1% Club as the clearest loyalty parallel
The most instructive piece of Kamath's portfolio for us is The 1% Club, where his VC firm Gruhas — alongside Abhijeet Pai — invested ₹10 crore in October 2023. Founded by finfluencer Sharan Hegde and Raghav Gupta, it began as financial education content and was reshaping into a fintech-edtech hybrid: community access, mentorship, and fintech services sold through a paid membership model. Hegde himself described the company as "a mix of finance and community." That phrasing should feel familiar to anyone designing token-gated perks — the value exchange isn't the content, it's the belonging.
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What we can borrow for our own programs
Three threads from Kamath's playbook translate directly into loyalty strategy. First, he backs companies that already own community trust, not just reach — a reminder that an NFT membership only works if the community existed before the mint. Second, founders stay in creative control post-acquisition, the way the strongest brand-NFT projects treat holders as co-creators rather than customers. Third, the portfolio stacks adjacent capabilities — strategy, cultural insight, content — under one roof, much like a thoughtful loyalty program layers tiers, access and experiences instead of just stacking points.
What to watch next
Keep an eye on how WTF integrates OHC and BTG — whether the campaigns that come out start looking more like community activations than ad buys. And follow The 1% Club's membership trajectory closely; if a fintech built on a single finfluencer's audience can sustain a paid community at scale, the thesis that "community is the new loyalty program" picks up serious evidence — and we should be designing our token-gated experiences accordingly.