Medal.tv said it has raised $9 million in funding for short-form videos that have become a big means of self-expression in the social media age.
Horizons Ventures led the round with participation from existing investors Makers Fund, Backed.VC, and Social Starts. In just 14 months since launch, the platform said it has grown into one of the largest and fastest-growing platforms in gaming.
The platform is growing between 10% to 20% per week. Some creators are actively gaining thousands of followers on the platform. Gamers are uploading millions of clips every month, and they’re viewing even more of them, according to the Long Beach, California-based Medal.
“At Medal, we believe the next big social platform will emerge in gaming, perhaps built on top of short-form content, partially as a result of gaming publishers trying to build their own isolated gaming stores and systems,” said Pim de Witte, the CEO of the company, in a statement. “That drives social fragmentation in the market and brings out the need for platforms such as Medal and Discord, which unite gamers across games and platforms in a meaningful way.”
Medal.tv is not disclosing exact user numbers at the moment, but when I was writing this, it had nearly 20,000 gamers online, a close to 10-times increase from the company’s seed round in February.
“We’re seeing sharing of short-form video emerge as a means of self-expression and entertainment for the current generation. We believe Medal’s platform will be a foundation for interactive social experiences beyond what you can find in a game,” said Jonathan Tam of Horizons Ventures.
Tam will join Medal’s board.
Medal works with game developers to grow their titles through their own audiences, as short-form content drives awareness and game discovery across social platforms. For example, the company recently launched “Get this on Steam” in partnership with Steam to drive game sales.
“Friends are the main driver of game discovery, and game developers benefit from shareable games as a result. Medal.tv is trying to enable that without the complexity of streaming” said Matteo Vallone, who previously headed up games for Google Play Europe and is an investor in Medal, in a statement.
Medal.tv plans to use its money to hire and develop business-facing operations. It has also opened up a partnership program for upcoming creators to continue to expand its rapidly growing user base.
“Pim and his team are a talented, perceptive, and gritty group and it’s been a joy working with them,” said Makers Fund investor Ryann Lai in a statement. “Medal has the exciting potential to enable a seamless social exchange of virtual experiences.“
Rivals include YouTube, Twitch, Plays.tv, Gifyourgame, and Athenascope. Medal looks at your mobile device as the place where you’ll spend most of your time sharing and viewing clips, whereas you record them anywhere (currently PC only). Medal also focuses on pairing the creation with viewership, through features such as adding buttons to your clips.
Medal has 25 employees.