In spite of the ongoing crypto winter, venture capitalists are investing millions in Web3 gaming startups. The latest platform taking advantage of that buzz is Stacked, a “Web3 startup studio” that just raised a $12.9 million Series A funding round.
Stacked co-founder Alex Lin told TechCrunch that his upcoming platform will essentially be “Twitch for Web3.” The streaming hub’s interface will probably look familiar to Twitch users, but its ownership structure is more novel. By dispensing tokens to top-performing creators, Stacked wants to ensure that its community maintains a majority stake in the company.
Like another well-funded Web3 startup, CreatorDAO, Stacked is positioning its financial system as a more egalitarian alternative to the models employed by Web 2.0 platforms. “If a video platform is only as good as its content, why do its content creators receive little to no ownership over the value they create?” asks the About page on the Stacked website. “It feels like we’ve all experienced Stockholm syndrome, happy with the terms set by monopolistic platforms who delist and demonetize content without notice. We can do better.”
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The firm at the front of Stacked’s Series A is encouraging its push into the blockchain biz. Pantera Capital, which led the round, helped convince Lin to move his platform toward Web3. It has also invested in Metatheory, a company led by Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin. Metatheory is using crypto assets to support its “play to mint” model.
Based on the other investors who have contributed funding to Stacked, the platform has big ambitions abroad. Participants in its Series A include Z Venture Capital, which is linked to the Japanese messaging service LINE, and YJ Capital, which owns Yahoo! Japan. For tech companies that are looking to roll out novel gaming concepts, East Asia is great place to run tests. TikTok, for example, rolled out games in Vietnam before making a similar stateside push.
Now that several prominent online video personalities are committing to large-scale Web3 projects, crypto-forward streaming platforms like Stacked will have plenty of opportunities to attract committed user bases. According to TechCrunch, Stacked will hit North America in December and will arrive in Asia and Latin America after that.
