A creator economy startup is ready for its star moment. GigaStar, which operates a platform that turns fans into investors, has announced $4.8 million in seed funding.
GigaStar’s signature product is GigaStar Market. Once populated, the digital marketplace will let visitors browse channels that are offering ownership cuts in their future productions. Fans who chose to invest via GigaStar Market will receive blockchain-backed Channel Revenue Tokens to signify their stake in the associated channel.
Essentially, GigaStar’s model is the inverse of the catalog licensing deals that have become common in the creator economy. Instead of ceding revenue on old videos and maintaining full ownership of future content, GigaStar users will use the visibility of their old videos to raise money for co-owned productions.
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Firms that contributed to GigaStar’s seed round include DV Crypto VC, Tomsic Holdings, Nameless Ventures, and Belvedere Strategic Capital. “GigaStar has streamlined a traditionally complex process to support entrepreneurs in the creator economy,” said Tomsic Holdings manager Rick Tomsic in a statement. “YouTube creators will be able to issue their own private revenue share offerings. This is what the democratization of the creator economy looks like and we believe in GigaStar’s value creation model.”
With millions in its pockets, GigaStar is set to leverage the growing trend of creators-as-investors. Karat, Creative Juice, Night Media, and CreatorDAO are some of the other companies that have facilitated and capitalized on that phenomenon.
GigaStar is preparing for a soft launch this month, with a wider rollout planned for the second quarter. Creators who are interested in listing their IP on GigaStar Market can apply to join the platform via its website.
