Subscription-content platform Patreon has raised $90 million from investors, for a total valuation in excess of $1.2 billion.
Patreon co-founder and CEO Jack Conte disclosed the fundraising benchmark and more than $1.2 billion valuation in a recently posted YouTube video. Having filmed the informal clip in front of several instruments, Conte, who is one-half of Pomplamoose, voiced his desire to stay connected with the Patreon community despite the company’s substantial growth and worth. The 36-year-old is also slated to host a Reddit Q&A tomorrow.
Conte addressed the new valuation and funding during the final couple moments of the video message. Speaking of why the seven-year-old Patreon hadn’t previously revealed its valuation, Conte said: “I didn’t want to make it about Patreon! I wanted to make it about our creators!”
However, the Stanford alumnus expressed his belief that the figure would have leaked due to the nature of the latest Patreon funding round, besides specifying that the amount represents a major milestone in the platform’s history.
In March, during the domestic onset of the COVID-19 crisis, Patreon announced that it had gained approximately 30,000 creators in just one month. Though widespread lockdown measures and social-distancing requirements seemingly prompted a number of individuals (including many musicians) to launch Patreon profiles, the company proceeded to lay off 13 percent of its workforce in late April. Higher-ups attributed the cutbacks to the fiscal strain of the pandemic.
Nevertheless, the San Francisco-headquartered entity isn’t the only digital brand that’s gained ground since the arrival of the novel coronavirus. A COVID-fueled drop in advertising revenue resulted in Spotify’s missing its Q2 earnings mark, but the streaming service’s second-quarter income still represented a 13 percent year-over-year increase. SPOT shares, like those of Netflix, Google, Amazon, and other web-based companies, have quietly touched several all-time-high price points in 2020.
Similarly, traditional concert shutdowns have inspired multiple pivots within the music industry. After canceling its world tour due to COVID-19, K-pop sensation BTS organized a one-night-only livestream concert, Bang Bang Con: The Live. The 12-song remote gig brought in at least $20 million, setting a new pay-per-view record in the process.
More recently, Jay-Z-owned streaming service Tidal signaled confidence in the future of virtual-reality concerts by purchasing a whopping $7 million worth of Sensorium VR tokens. The “Senso Token” will serve as the official currency of Sensorium’s Galaxy, a VR universe that’s scheduled to offer live music and socialization experiences beginning next year.