Gamefam Raises $25 Million to Bring Brands into the Metaverse

Samson Amore

Samson Amore is a reporter for dot.LA. He holds a degree in journalism from Emerson College and previously covered technology and entertainment for TheWrap and reported on the SoCal startup scene for the Los Angeles Business Journal. Send tips or pitches to samsonamore@dot.la and find him on Twitter @Samsonamore.

Gamefam
Image from Gamefam

West Hollywood-based video game studio Gamefam has raised a $25 million Series A round to fuel its business of linking Roblox game developers to brands looking to advertise to Generation Z audiences.

Konvoy Ventures, a VC firm based in Denver, led the round and was joined by investors Play Ventures, Makers Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners and Galaxy Interactive.


Since launching in 2019, Gamefam has released more than 30 live games on the popular Roblox platform, and now claims an audience of 6.5 million daily users in the U.S. and 15 million worldwide. The studio said the new funding has helped grow its headcount to more than 100 employees.

A key part of Gamefam’s model is allowing major companies like Disney and Mattel, as well as larger game publishers like Sony and Ubisoft, to integrate their brands into advertising experiences that fit within a game. These so-called “custom branded experiences” are becoming more popular in the gaming world, especially as platforms like Roblox promise a more immersive metaverse experience for users.

Branded experiences in video games also tend to focus less on the traditional, hardcore gaming crowd and more on a wider general audience drawn to virtual entertainment experiences. Music experiences, in particular, have proven particularly viable; rapper Travis Scott’s live virtual concert in “Fortnite” reached over 12 million viewers, while a Roblox performance by rapper Lil Nas X drew 36 million attendees. Sony’s music division inked a deal with Roblox last year to bring more of its artists onto the platform.

Gamefam CEO Joe Ferencz noted that although the company makes money from brand partnerships, it is still focused on serving individual creators looking to publish games on third-party platforms like Roblox.

“Gamefam is a company started by creators to support creators,” Ferencz said in a statement. “We have been able to bring together experts from AAA gaming as well as some of Roblox's top native talent to drive successful revenue growth for our games, create opportunities for brands, and build new franchises.”

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Starships Were Meant To Fly: Astrolab's New Jeep-Sized Rover Gets a Lift from SpaceX

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
Starships Were Meant To Fly: Astrolab's New Jeep-Sized Rover Gets a Lift from SpaceX
Photo by Samson Amore

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Local Los Angeles-area startup Astrolab Inc. has designed a new lunar vehicle called FLEX, short for Flexible Logistics and Exploration Rover. About the size of a Jeep Wrangler, FLEX is designed to move cargo around the surface of the moon on assignment. It’s a bit larger than NASA’s Mars rovers, like Perseverance, but as it’s designed for transport and mobility rather than precision measurement, it can travel much faster, at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour across the lunar surface.

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Meet the Creator Economy’s Version of LinkedIn

Kristin Snyder

Kristin Snyder is dot.LA's 2022/23 Editorial Fellow. She previously interned with Tiger Oak Media and led the arts section for UCLA's Daily Bruin.

Meet the Creator Economy’s Version of LinkedIn
Creatorland

This is the web version of dot.LA’s daily newsletter. Sign up to get the latest news on Southern California’s tech, startup and venture capital scene.

LinkedIn hasn’t caught on with Gen Z—in fact, 96% rarely use their existing account.

Considering 25% of young people want to be full-time content creators and most influencers aren’t active on LinkedIn, traditional networking sites aren’t likely to meet these needs.

Enter CreatorLand.

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This Week in ‘Raises’: Total Network Services Gains $9M, Autio Secures $5.9M

Decerry Donato

Decerry Donato is a reporter at dot.LA. Prior to that, she was an editorial fellow at the company. Decerry received her bachelor's degree in literary journalism from the University of California, Irvine. She continues to write stories to inform the community about issues or events that take place in the L.A. area. On the weekends, she can be found hiking in the Angeles National forest or sifting through racks at your local thrift store.

This Week in ‘Raises’: Total Network Services Gains $9M, Autio Secures $5.9M
This Week in ‘Raises’:

It has been a slow week in funding, but a local decentralized computing network managed to land $9 million to accelerate deployment of its new product called Universal Communication Identifier (UCID™). Another local company that secured capital included Kevin Costner’s location-based audio storytelling platform and the funding will go toward expanding the app’s content library and expanding into additional regions in the United States.

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