Investing in Genvid: Enabling Massive Interactive Live Events
One of the most exciting trends in consumer content has been the persistent use of technology to drive engagement and adoption. Interactivity is likely one of the next frontiers in consumer content as more and more younger generations crave engagement, interactivity and migrate away from more passive media.
For example, livestreaming content, where viewers can communicate in real time with other players (streamers) via chat grew dramatically last year. Twitch, Facebook and YouTube reached over 8.8 billion hours watched in the first quarter of 2021, growing 80% year-over-year.
More engaging formats, such as gaming, have been leading the shift towards interactive entertainment. Gaming consumers (who tend to be younger) demonstrated strong interest in interactive features which provides a glimpse at what the future of entertainment will look like.
Interactive entertainment has evolved beyond a proof of concept, with successes across gaming, e-sports and media:
- Twitch Plays Pokémon is a Twitch channel started in February 2014 to play Pokémon Red on Twitch by parsing crowdsourced commands sent by users through its chat room. After 16 days, the game was completed, with a peak of 121,000 concurrents and a total of 55 million views and 1.2 million participants (breaking a Guinness World Record for most participants on a single-player video game)
- Epic Games allowed viewers to control their point of view (POV) at their Fortnite World Cup broadcast in July 2019. Concurrent viewers peaked at over 2.3 million, making it the most-watched competitive gaming event (excluding China) of all time
- In 2018, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch premiered on Netflix as an interactive film that enables viewers to make decisions to guide plot. As a result of the success of Bandersnatch, Netflix has doubled down into interactive shows and has released titles including You vs. Wild, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, The Boss Baby: Back in Business, Captain Underpants and Minecraft: Story Mode
Despite existing media formats, there remains a gap between lean-back entertainment (television and passive consumption of livestreams) and highly interactive entertainment (interactive games and VR/AR). A mainstream technology by which the audience can seamlessly transition from being a spectator to a participant and vice-versa has so far been elusive.
Enter Genvid Technologies.
We believe Genvid Technologies has the capability to be just that: the single layer software to power the next generation of content interactivity. We are excited to announce our investment in Genvid’s Series C financing co-led by Valor Equity Partners and Atreides Management as they too pioneer the next frontier in interactive entertainment with Massive Interactive Live Events (“MILEs”).
Genvid is helping bring the Metaverse forward by building advanced interactive streaming technology and enabling MILEs, single cloud-based simulations supporting a large base of viewers who all interact and influence the game in real time. Genvid has built the Genvid SDK, a software layer with the flexibility to run on any streaming platform and infrastructure, including Twitch and YouTube transforming millions of concurrent viewers into “participants” within livestreams. The Genvid SDK integrates with game engines (e.g. Unreal Engine 4 and Unity) and captures video, audio and data.
Genvid enables a new format that promises to make less engaging forms of content to interactive content. For example, Genvid powered the Facebook-exclusive Rival Peak, a game-like interactive reality show featuring 12 AI contestants in a Survivor-like competition where the audience can influence the outcome by engaging in tasks to help their favorite characters — like tapping on the screen to break a boulder or voting on a character’s next task to do. As the first entry into the MILE category, Rival Peak has garnered over 100 million minutes watched in its first season alone.
The founding team is well-positioned for the mission of bringing MILEs forward as a media category. CEO Jacob Navok, COO Chris Cataldi and CTO Fabien Niñoles bring decades of operating and game development experience, having previously worked together at Shinra Technologies, the cloud gaming subsidiary of Square Enix.
With a team of industry veterans and their leading interactive streaming technology, we are excited to partner with Genvid to help bring interactive entertainment to the masses.
*********
Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources and Cobalt has not independently verified such information and we make no representations about the accuracy of the information contained in this blog, links to third party sources or the materials provided by such sources. The content in this blog is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as investment advice or recommendations of any kind. In addition, nothing contained in this blog should be relied upon for purposes of investing in any funds managed by Cobalt Capital, nor is anything contained herein an offering to invest in any Cobalt Capital fund — any such offering will be set forth in a legal agreement provided directly by Cobalt Capital.
Any investment by Cobalt Capital mentioned in this blog is not an assurance of profitability or success nor is this a comprehensive list of all Cobalt investments. Past performance is not indicative of future results and certain statements herein may constitute “forward looking statements,” which may be subjective and subject to a number of uncertainties and factors outside of Cobalt’s control, which could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements.
The content in this blog speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others.
