Where will the next Harry Potter, Star Wars or Game of Thrones franchise take shape? In a world where user-generated content is taking over, the answer may not be in traditional publishing or at one of the large studios. Unvale, a Chicago-based startup, hopes not. The creator platform, which is today announcing a $1.8 million pre-seed round, believes it is perfectly placed to support the next generation of writers, illustrators and story tellers.
“There is an unbelievable amount of talent out there just waiting to be discovered,” says Casey Lawlor, who co-founded Unvale in 2021 with Bri Clark, and now serves as the business’s CEO. “But these creatives need somewhere to develop their characters and build their stories.”
Unvale’s pitch is that creators who want to develop short-form video are well-served by platforms such as YouTube, Roblox and TikTok, which make it very easy to produce new content and provide rapidly-growing audiences keen to consumer such work. By contrast, says Lawlor, “long-form illustrators, writers and storytellers have so far missed out on the benefits of the creator economy”.
Unvale therefore seeks to close this gap. It provides a single platform on which users can develop their stories one piece at a time. That might mean, say, sharing a new character with their audience, publishing a new chapter of the tale, unveiling artwork, or offering interactive content. Whatever the content, creators can build their narrative and reach their audience in the same place – rather than self-publishing content and then trying to build an audience for it via social media, let alone trying to sell their ideas to a traditional publisher or studio.
The platform appears to be building momentum. Creatives have so far published 2 million pieces of content on Unvale, racking up 320,000 followers between them. The platform now has 20,000 active monthly users.
“Unvale creators can publish more long-form media than the entire studio and publishing industry,” adds Lawlor. “Our creators have already created 200 times the number of characters that Disney released in the last century. The cream will rise to the top and an entire generation of brilliant creatives will be given an opportunity previously reserved for a select few.”
One advantage for creators of working this way, Lawlor argues, is that they get validation and support for their ideas from the earliest stage; this gives them the motivation to keep working on their content. By contrast, many young creatives are daunted by approaching traditional publishers and studios, he says. Many simply give up on creative work altogether.
The business will naturally need to commercialise. Though Unvale remains pre-revenue for now, it sees potential in premium subscriptions and revenue sharing with creatives. The key will be to build sufficient scale to make such models viable.
Today’s fundraising should help in that process – it is already paying for engineer recruitment, for example – with investors including Antler, Graham & Walker, Ganas Ventures, GFR Fund, LongJump VC, Network Ventures and Vitalize Angels. At Antler, general partner Ryan Sommerville says: “Unvale’s growth has been nothing short of remarkable – they consistently deliver on their lofty goals and are clearly driven by a deep mission to change how consumer media is created and distributed.”
Lawlor expects to launch a new funding round soon, based on the growth potential that the company is now showing. “We see this as a platform that can reach tens of millions of consumers all around the world,” he says.
That would be huge for Unvale’s creators, many of whom are young but passionate hobbyists who are just keen to share their work with others – from comics to animated series to full-blown novels.
“User-generated content platforms ideally create democratic access and equitable, meritocratic paths to success,” Lawlor adds. “The media industry has historically been the opposite – you needed connections, prestige and pedigree to see your ideas reach a massive audience. We want to allow anyone to make it because we believe great ideas and talent are equally distributed; unfortunately access is not.”
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