StoryCo Closes $6M Seed Round

0
StoryCo Closes $6M Seed Round
Brothers Shelby (left) and Sandy Murphy with some of their artwork.

StoryCo has closed a $6 million seed funding round.

The Pasadena-based media technology company said the financing was co-led by Patron and Collab and Currency, with additional investment from Floodgate Ventures, Blockchange Ventures, Sfermio and Flamingo DAO.

Angel investors included Lloyd Braun, founder of Whalerock Industries in West Hollywood; Sabrina Hahn, a venture investor and children’s book author; and Packy McCormick, founder of Not Boring, a media and venture capital firm based in New York City.

StoryCo founders Justin and J.P. Alanis said that they are building a new model to drive development of stories and allow its community of creatives and fans to contribute meaningfully to its expansion.

Along with the seed funding announcement, the media technology company announced its first story universe, “The Disco Ball.” Led by creator Kyle Killen and illustrated by Shelby and Sandy Murphy, “The Disco Ball” is an immersive and collaborative storytelling experience – an interactive narrative unfolding across the StoryCo site, social media and real-world interactions.

“The Disco Ball” follows Captain Alma Cooke and her team of astronauts as they are thrust into a journey to save the multiverse, which can be completed only with the community’s help. By deciphering puzzles, discovering artifacts, and solving quests as the story unfolds on the StoryCo platform, the community will experience Alma and her crew’s story.

“StoryCo has created a pathway for an entirely new form of storytelling, allowing for a freedom of creative expression that previously didn’t exist,” Killen said in a statement. “I’ve long been looking for a way to immerse the audience more deeply into the story by making them a part of both the story and the creative process, and the technologies made available by StoryCo now enable that to happen.”

“We are honored to be the first story artists on the StoryCo platform,” Shelby and Sandy, brothers who grew up in Irvine and are now based in Los Angeles, said in a statement.

Derek Edward Schloss, managing partner at Collab and Currency, said that, historically, fans are downplayed as consumers, not as owners, collaborators, or sources of inspiration.

“That changes today,” Schloss said in a statement. “Our team couldn’t be more excited to back StoryCo, the internet’s first open ecosystem of story creation, interaction, and most importantly, ownership.”

No posts to display