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Infinite Canvas has raised $2.8 million to help usher in the metaverse and enable influential creators to build their virtual experiences on Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft.
Lightshed Venture Partners led the round, with participation from Bitkraft Ventures, Day One Ventures, Crossbeam, and Emerson Collective.
Infinite Canvas fuses a content production agency, a talent-management company, the monetization infrastructure of a game studio and publisher, and the software expertise of a tech company to help creators build and grow their virtual experiences across platforms.
The shift to digital entertainment spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns has accelerated the quick growth potential of virtual worlds.
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Roblox engages over 43 million daily active users and over 50% of American children under 16 have a Roblox account and spend over 2.5 hours per day on the platform. And 1.25 million creators have made money on Roblox, and payouts to developers have grown from $100 million in 2019, to a projected $500 million in 2021.
Additionally, Fortnite has over 350 million monthly active players and generated $5.1 billion in revenue in 2020. Over a billion Minecraft mods have been downloaded generating over $350 million in sales.
Even with over eight million active creators and developers on Roblox alone, there is limited support and infrastructure for the creators building, expanding, and popularizing these virtual worlds.
“There is so much talent and creativity being unlocked by user-generated gaming platforms,” said Tal Shachar, CEO of Infinite Canvas, in an email to GamesBeat. “Independent creators and developers are building the future of gaming. At infinite Canvas we support them by helping close the loop between developers, content creators and players, no matter which platform they call home.”
Infinite Canvas has created a network of metaverse user-generated content (UGC) creators, developers, and intellectual property contributors. It calls this an esports team for the metaverse.
Members of a UGC team receive access to analytics tools, game development and tech support, marketing expertise, asset management, and talent partnerships to create and scale gaming experiences that are distributed on platforms including Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft.
At launch, Infinite Canvas has some of the largest Roblox-focused content creators signed on, including Deeterplays, Russoplays, and Terabrite Games members Sabrina and DJ Monopoli, as well as Roblox game developers and Fortnite map makers like EvanBear1, Atlas Studios (Michael “The Slurp” Herriger and Jordan “Fatal Creations” Holland) and more.
Across Roblox and Fortnite Creative, they have over 4.5 million combined subscribers and a reach of over 160 million plays. The company is also working with influencers and celebrities to introduce gaming experiences to their fans on Roblox, Fortnite, and other UGC gaming platforms.
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Author: Dean Takahashi
Source: Venturebeat
