Internet and telecommunications firm SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 led a $100m funding round for Israel-based livestreaming platform developer StreamElements yesterday.
PayPal Ventures, the corporate venture capital unit for digital payment processor PayPal, also participated in the round, alongside insurance provider Menorah Mivtachim, Pitango Venture Capital’s Pitango First vehicle, MoreTech Ventures, State of Mind Ventures and Mivtach Shamir.
Founded in 2016, StreamElements provides software tools for livestreaming and video-on-demand (VOD) content creation for platforms including Twitch, Youtube and Facebook Gaming. Its platform can integrate with streaming and recording app OBS Studio and add functionality such as chatbots and cloud-based overlays.
Nahoko Hoshino, investment director at SoftBank Investment Advisers, which manages Vision Fund 2, will join StreamElements’ board of directors in connection with the round. The company has also appointed one of its co-founders, Gil Hirsch, as chief executive officer.
Hirsch said: “With this additional funding we are bolstering our staff to strengthen and broaden our ability to enable content creators across multiple platforms to make a living doing what they love.”
The company also said it will use the funding to accelerate its growth and build new production, engagement and monetisation tools for livestreaming and VOD creation.
Samsung Next, a subsidiary of consumer electronics provider Samsung, took part in an $11.3m series A round for StreamElements in early 2019 that was led by Pitango Venture Capital and backed by PayPal Ventures, State of Mind Ventures, Rainfall Venture Capital, Mivtach Shamir and unnamed others.
Samsung Next, State of Mind Ventures and Rainfall were all described as existing investors at the time of the series A round, though details of StreamElements’ earlier funding could not be confirmed.