FreshCut, a short-form gaming content ecosystem, announced it and its ecosystem partners have collectively raised $15 million in funding. The raises were led by Galaxy Interactive, Animoca Brands, and Republic Crypto with participation from Hashed, SkyVision Capital, Tamarack Global, C2X and Polygon. Other notable investors include Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch, CH Kim, co-founder of PUBG, JJ Redick, co-host of “The Old Man and the Three” podcast, 3x NBA Champion Andre Igoudala, Trevor McFedries, co-founder of Friends With Benefits, and prominent content creator Tucker “JERICHO” Boner. The capital will allow FreshCut and its ecosystem partners to bring to market an entirely new experience for gaming fans across the globe.
FreshCut is focused on bridging gaming and Web3 with a community-focused content platform that enables creators to publish high-quality, short-form content that fans can connect with on their own terms. By leveraging Web3 principles and technologies, FreshCut is creating a new user experience that allows the entire community, both fans and creators, to be rewarded for their participation and to influence the trajectory of the platform. Creators will be able to create-and-earn the native FreshCut community token for uploading their content. Similarly, gaming fans can engage-and-earn with the latest clips from their favorite creators to earn tokens, just the beginning of many ways in which the token will be integrated into the FreshCut ecosystem.
FreshCut is working with creators to enable a superior curated content experience for fans of gaming and esports content. Fans can expect to find top content from premier games such as Super Smash Bros, Warzone, League of Legends, Street Fighter and Valorant. FreshCut is also partnering with new and upcoming Web3 games and content creators like Brycent, Chief Pat, and Mystic7.
“The FreshCut team has an impressive vision for the gaming content industry: to hyper-connect all gaming fans across disparate Web2 and Web3 games. Our investment in FreshCut will help to power the next generation of gaming content and community,” said Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands.
The gaming industry is projected to be worth a quarter trillion dollars by 2025. However, almost all of this value is currently captured by gaming studios, Web2 platforms running ads, live events, and the top 0.1% of gaming professionals. In other words, 99.9% of gaming creators and fans are left out of this equation. As consumers spend more time and money in digital spaces, gamers and their fans can create new ways to unlock value in this relationship. FreshCut is positioned to capture this growing market opportunity and serve as a bridge between creators and their fans.
Richard Kim, General Partner of Galaxy Interactive added: “We are thrilled to partner with FreshCut, an experienced team that is building solutions for gaming content creators, and enabling a new ecosystem for customized, curated, content for those new consumers looking to unplug from Web2 gaming content platforms that don’t reward them for their time or effort.”
FreshCut was founded by three former Twitch leaders, James Kuk, Ernie Le, and Ben Stueck, who saw an opportunity to significantly improve the short form gaming content experience. The FreshCut development team has deep experience in the creator economy, video gaming, esports, social and crypto industries from Twitch, Xbox, Reddit, Sony and more.