By Somesh Dash and Alex Lim
Last week, Discord confirmed media reports that it recently raised a new round of growth financing, and we are pleased to announce today that IVP served as the lead investor in the financing.
It's no secret that Discord is one of the most exciting private consumer Internet companies out there today. It's our belief that Discord has a very good shot at being one of the iconic consumer companies of the next decade (and hopefully beyond!).
IVP is a leading later-stage venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, CA. We have been incredibly fortunate to be early backers of several game-changing consumer Internet companies, including Coinbase, Dropbox, Snap, Supercell, and Twitter. Just as these companies transformed their respective markets, we believe Discord has the potential to transform the gaming industry. Here is why we invested:
Passion for Gaming: True greatness emerges when mission-driven founders innovate around massive market opportunities. Jason Citron, CEO of Discord, is a life-long gamer and serial entrepreneur. He has also assembled a talented team who are all truly passionate about Discord's mission of bringing people together around games. We rarely see a team so dedicated, focused, and driven to change the market they serve. When we do find them, we focus our efforts on how to help them unlock their ultimate potential.
Users
Discord: Discord's voice, video, and text chat platform is built for the specific needs of gamers. Discord's easy-to-use core product is 100% free and jam-packed with features like crystal-clear voice chat, robust security, screen sharing, game integrations, and sweet tunes. Users love the product, and as a result, Discord's engagement metrics are amongst the best we have ever seen.
Breakneck Speed: At IVP we focus on companies in the hyper-growth stage and Discord is scaling and growing incredibly fast. Users are joining at an astonishing rate, and the company recently announced they had reached over 90M registered accounts less than three years after launch. We believe in a future where every gamer uses Discord every time they play.
Gaming Goes Mainstream: Thanks to the growth of online multiplayer games, mobile gaming, and new ways to create and share video content, games have become a $100BN industry and a core part of popular culture. A recent example: last month, the rapper Drake joined up with super-streamer Ninja for a casual game session and over 600,000 people tuned in live to watch them play! And before you ask, of course, they used Discord to chat!
A Bright Future: Like other successful messaging platforms, Discord benefits from strong network effects. Initially, it was small groups of friends chatting on Discord. Now, game developers and publishers, esports teams, online communities, and international influencers are building and engaging with massive audiences on Discord. We don't see this momentum slowing down, and with partnerships like the recently announced deal with Microsoft Xbox, we think Discord can expand its reach and become a global hub for gaming.
Great Co-investors: Discord's current investors include Benchmark, Greylock, Index, and Spark, which are some of the top venture capital firms in the world. We had the privilege of co-investing with these firms previously in some of our most successful investments and are delighted to collaborate with them again on Discord.
Because They Let Us: When Discord decided to raise a new financing round, IVP was one of a few firms considered as a potential lead investor. Discord is already a massive success, so we are thankful for the opportunity to partner with the company. Thank you to Jason, his team, and the Discord Board of Directors for choosing IVP. We look forward to working together in the years to come. Game on!
Somesh Dash is a General Partner at IVP, a later-stage venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, CA. Alex Lim is a Senior Associate at IVP.
Most recent headlines
02/01/2025
With more than 640 million users and more than 250 million subscribers, Spotify ...
02/01/2025
NextGen TV, aka ATSC 3.0, continued to advance in 2024, with some notable developments and renewed hopes that a deregulatory-minded Federal Communications Commi...
02/01/2025
Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly the hottest topic in the tech industry today, displaying all the excitement, apprehension and hype of the early days of t...
02/01/2025
STAMFORD, Conn. NBC Sports said 2024 was its best year in terms of ratings since 2016. Its success was fueled by the Paris Summer Olympics as well as its NFL co...
02/01/2025
MSG Networks has been dropped from Altice USA's Optimum-branded pay TV offerings after the operator and the regional sports provider were unable to reach a ...
02/01/2025
How color film and analog color TV works with bluescreen / chromakey
Graham Quince January 2, 2025
0 Comments
A deep dive into VFX History looking at ...
02/01/2025
Hulu Series Interior Chinatown Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton January 2, 2025
0 Comments
Colorist Aidan Stanford delivers complex gra...
02/01/2025
Bulk Font Replacement in Premiere Pro
Andy Ford January 2, 2025
0 Comments
If you want to change the font of multiple text layers in Premiere Pro, the...
02/01/2025
Streaming media's impact on the media and entertainment industry continued to widen in 2024, as more sports rights moved to streaming platforms and the rapi...
02/01/2025
ATLANTA The board of directors for Gray Television Inc. has unanimously voted to change the company's name to Gray Media, Inc. effective Jan. 1....
02/01/2025
Official television and film archives exist to preserve the history and creativity of media. But even these formal institutions do not contain everything that h...
02/01/2025
Welsh succeeds Renard Jenkins, who has reached the end of his two-year tenure in the role
By Jenny Priestley
Published: January 2, 2025
Welsh succeeds Ren...
02/01/2025
Creator Economy Isn't Really Like Film/Show Entertainment
Andy Marken January 1, 2025
0 Comments
Come on Barry, you're good at this sort of s...
02/01/2025
Blackmagic Design Announces New Lower Price for Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera ...
02/01/2025
Hollywood Lighting Hacks: Big Looks, Tiny Budget
Sean Alami January 1, 2025
0 Comments
Discover how to create stunning Hollywood-style lighting using ...
02/01/2025
PDC World Darts Championship: Sky Sports on the oche for the Nuke's' re...
02/01/2025
PGA TOUR's Mike Raimondo on the Highlights and Impact of the PGA's New C...
02/01/2025
SVG Year in Review - Audio Edition: More Music, More Mergers, Fewer A1s Spectrum, sports betting, AI are other factors in sound for both broadcast and streaming...
02/01/2025
SVG Year in Review: Our Most Read Stories, A Look Back at Paris 2024, and the Bi...
02/01/2025
Comscore Appoints New Chief Marketing Officer Measurement innovator taps TV, streaming and digital ad veteran Jackelyn Keller for brand and product marketing e...
02/01/2025
A fresh start to 2025 with new faces, familiar voices and plenty of Irish music ...
02/01/2025
GeForce NOW is kicking off 2025 by delivering 14 games to the cloud this month, with two available to stream this week so members can get started on their New Y...
01/01/2025
Marcy Lefkovitz, Dalet SVP product innovation, details the findings of the companys report into the future of newsrooms, including leveraging AI, optimising mul...
01/01/2025
PGA TOUR Centers Media Operations in Transformative New Studio Fully integrated ST 2110 facility enhances production for fans domestic and international By Ken...
31/12/2024
Rashad Frett shares a moment with Michelle Satter at the 2023 Directors Lab. Pho...
31/12/2024
What's Ahead in 2025? OWC's Larry O'Connor Offers Some Bold Predicti...
31/12/2024
Blackmagic Design Announces New Features for Blackmagic Cloud
Brie Clayton December 31, 2024
0 Comments
New thumbnail icon view, clip metadata inspect...
31/12/2024
5 Features in DaVinci Resolve You're Not Using (But You Should Be)
Kasia Jarco December 31, 2024
0 Comments
In this video we are going to talk abo...
31/12/2024
Back to All News
NFL Christmas Day Games on Netflix Average Over 30 Million Global Viewers
Entertainment
31 December 2024
Global
Link copied to clipboard
...
31/12/2024
Back to All News
Squid Game' Season 2 Smashes Top 10 Records as Millions W...
30/12/2024
Leaving Thomson after 21 years, former Managing Director David Quin reflects on a career spent navigating the shifting sands of global media development. From r...
30/12/2024
[Pictured: a still from Love Lies Bleeding, one of the 100 Sundance-supported titles that opened to wider audiences in 2024]...
30/12/2024
Digital Domain Creates Groundbreaking VFX for Venom: The Last Dance, Bringing ...
30/12/2024
Internet Giant GMP Builds Tokyo Virtual Event Space with URSA Broadcast G2
Brie Clayton December 30, 2024
0 Comments
Blackmagic URSA Broadcast G2 and ...
30/12/2024
Renderboxes launches Photon, a no-compromise transportable high-performance work...
30/12/2024
Shinobi II Monitor Supports Canon, Sony, Nikon - Touch to Focus with New Feature...
30/12/2024
30 Dec 2024
In a Groundbreaking Agreement, VEON and Starlink to Bring Starlink ...
30/12/2024
The pace of technology innovation has accelerated in the past year, most dramati...
29/12/2024
Gyeongnam Culture and Arts Foundation (GCAF), an active promotor of cultural and artistic diversity, has chosen Ikegami UHK-X700 camera chains for integration i...
27/12/2024
After starting 2024 with hopes that the transition to streaming might finally produce a more stable, profitable businesses, the media and entertainment industry...
27/12/2024
Broadcasters ended the year with hopes and fears about how the federal government will regulate the TV industry in 2025. While the incoming Trump administration...
27/12/2024
NVIDIA's AI Podcast gives listeners the inside scoop on the ways AI is transforming nearly every industry. Since the show's debut in 2016, it's gar...
26/12/2024
Talking about artificial intelligence in 2024 is akin to talking about the internet in 1994 everyone's excited about it and thinks it will have an enormous ...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Netflix NFL Christmas Gameday Reaches 65 Million US Viewers
Entertainment
26 December 2024
GlobalUnited States
Link copied to clipboard
U...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Check Out All the Must-See Trailers From Netflix's NFL Chr...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Beyonc Delivers Epic Gift of a Halftime Performance "Beyonc...
26/12/2024
Back to All News
Get in the Game With Squid Game' Season 2 Complete Coverage Guide
Entertainment
26 December 2024
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Are...
26/12/2024
This GFN Thursday wraps up another incredible year for cloud gaming. Take a look back at the top games and new features that made 2024 a standout for GeForce NO...
24/12/2024
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is calling for applications from South African film and television filmmakers to be part of the NFVF's delegat...
By Somesh Dash and Alex Lim
