Fanbase-development startup Levellr, which counts as shoppers Warner Music and Common Music, has introduced a $1 million pre-seed spherical.
London-headquartered Levellr only recently unveiled the million-dollar increase and its adjoining growth plans. On the previous entrance, Crush Music’s enterprise arm, Crush Capital, is alleged to have led the spherical – with lead investor Andrew Kahn pointing to the perceived business potential of superfans as one of many causes for the backing.
“We perceive the worth of genuine engaged fanbases, and particularly the facility of superfans,” indicated Kahn, whose firm has now invested in Sound.xyz, AudioShake, and others on the 12 months. “Levellr confirmed us that they perceive the area deeply, having landed such a powerful roster of consumers largely bootstrapped. We’re excited to be a part of the journey as an investor and a buyer.”
Based on its web site, two-year-old Levellr – which was co-founded by former Google/YouTube Music higher-up Ben Barbersmith and counts as workforce members 300 and Consider vets – assists artists in creating, moderating, and monetizing fanbases on platforms corresponding to Discord and Telegram.
By means of one Levellr kind, as an illustration, followers can develop into a part of Steve Aoki’s Discord server – whereas additionally becoming a member of the DJ’s mailing checklist. And through the Levellr interface itself, artists and their groups can view particulars together with supporters’ electronic mail addresses, international locations of residence, and interplay knowledge – presumably placing the knowledge to make use of by way of tailoring advertising and marketing initiatives, reaching out to superfans with particular provides, and extra.
Again to the specifics of the $1 million pre-seed spherical and ongoing Crush-Levellr tasks, the entities disclosed that they’d collaborated on the launch of a Fall Out Boy Discord server. Some 10,000 followers signed up through Levellr within the first 48 hours, with a 56 p.c marketing-consent opt-in fee towards an “trade common” of two p.c, in line with the companies.
“Earlier than assembly Levellr, we had tried constructing communities instantly on Discord, but it surely was very tough to correctly scale throughout the roster,” Crush Music CMO Dan Kruchkow added partially. “From an efficient launch, to the manpower required to service them, to moderation to maintain them clear and vibrant – Levellr solves for nearly all of it.”
Relating to Levellr’s aforementioned growth plans, the startup relayed that it’ll use the $1 million tranche “to scale up,” together with bolstering its “product, engineering and buyer success groups to satisfy demand throughout the UK and US” and rising “into new verticals alongside music, together with sport, gaming and leisure.”
And in remarks of his personal, Levellr co-founder and CEO Tom Gayner made clear his bold imaginative and prescient for the community-building platform’s trade position shifting ahead.
“Crush has been a real accomplice from day one,” stated the previous Octagon higher-up. “They really perceive the fan, offering invaluable insights and suggestions for the product. They’ve backed up investing in us by bringing our software program in to assist their artist roster, which is a superb signal we’re constructing a product the music trade wants. We expect music is a bellwether for the way our platform may help manufacturers throughout industries.”
Again in February, AI-powered fan-management startup Rivet scored $500,000 in pre-seed funding, whereas July noticed fan-monetization service Passes purchase Chainsmokers-backed “subscription social media platform” Fanhouse. And earlier this week, SM Leisure artists arrived on Weverse, the strong-performing superfan app of rival Okay-pop company Hybe.