With pandemic restrictions easing in many countries, the continuing fate of digital and virtual events is up in the air. On the basis of San Francisco-based startup Flymachine’s latest $21mn funding round, however, such events are here to stay.
The virtual venue provider provides a social experience for viewing live events digitally, allowing fans to watch streamed entertainment augmented with virtual spaces and proximity-based video chat.
“Virtual events have an opportunity to change the game for artists, promoters, and fans, but the technology that exists today is pretty underwhelming — videobox, paywall, and a bunch of scrolling nonsense; not exactly what one would call game-changing,” said Andrew Dreskin, CEO and Co-Founder of Flymachine.
“At Flymachine, we’re creating something different: a digital venue of the future, an art medium, and a social meeting place. It offers a level of depth, agency and social interactivity that hadn’t before existed. It’s a pretty cool way to check out a show remotely.”
Its latest $21mn round was led by Greycroft Partners and SignalFire, with additional participation from Primary Venture Partners, Contour Venture Partners, Red Sea Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank. It also featured participation from prominent individuals in the music industry including Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons.
“The Flymachine team’s deep track record of architecting many of the world’s best live entertainment experiences including Bonnaroo and Outside Lands, to name a few, aligns perfectly with the massive opportunity to unlock the future of social streaming for live events,” said Wayne Hu, Managing Director at SignalFire.
“In just a short amount of time, the team has built strategic partnerships with many of the most well-known venues in North America, developed the most innovative platform in the market, and created a next-generation experience for fans and artists. This was an investment we absolutely had to make.”
The company said it would use the funds to grow its team and venue partners, as well as develop new features for its platform.
