This Livestreaming Startup Wants to Create Boutique Experiences for Music Superfans

Moment House is a livestreaming platform that's gained traction building an audience among music fans, but CEO and co-founder Arjun Mehta doesn't see it as just another livestreaming platform.

Like the name suggests, Mehta is trying to mold the platform to create "moments" for creators and their megafans.

The platform's interactive features allow viewers to chat with performers and other fans live. And it's got some big name creators onboard, including rock band Tame Impala, Youtube star KSI and Tiny Meat Gang podcast hosts Cody Ko and Noel Miller, along with other podcasters to musicians.

"The creators that we love the most, we don't want to only receive content, we want to participate in experiences," he said. "The reason why is the same underlying psychology of why you get thrilled when your favorite artist has your city on their tour announcement, the same reason why, if you're a Christopher Nolan superfan, you want to see his next movie in theaters and not on HBO Max at home."

The Los Angeles-based startup announced Thursday that it raised $12 million in a round of Series A funding led by Forerunner Ventures.

Moment House co-founders Arjun Mehta, Shray Bansal and Nigel Egrari

Moment House's platform allows creators to host pay-per view livestreams. The broadcasts aren't always live — some of the content is pre-recorded — but Moment House doesn't save recordings of streams and tickets can be limited in quantity, Mehta said.

Mehta declined to disclose specific details on revenue and viewership numbers, but said its highest performing streams have grossed several million dollars and peaked at hundreds of thousands of viewers.

It's targeted to fans of both small and large creators. But performances aren't always meant for everyone. The cost of entry acts and limited ticketing can act as a "filter" for the most dedicated fans, said Mehta.

"You're not gonna want this for everyone," he said. "It's only the creators you truly truly love."

The platform has features like smaller breakout chatrooms based on location or sub interest and Clubhouse-like call rooms where users can talk during streams — beyond the chatting features offered on established platforms such as Twitch or YouTube.

"When you think of a livestream, you think of literally a livestream with a text chat – not much innovation is happening," he said.

Creators can also use the platform to sell merchandise during streams. Moment House is also developing other tools to help fans connect once performances are over, though Mehta declined to comment on specifics.

The platform is so far only based on desktop. Moment House's Series A funding included UTA Ventures, IDEO, Dumb Money Capital, as well as former and current executives from Spotify, YouTube, Clubhouse and Discord.

Moment House, Mehta said, isn't trying to replace physical experiences, but rather give creators better tools to reach audiences they otherwise couldn't.

"Physical experiences are obviously amazing, we love them, we're not trying to compete with them or replace them at all," he said. "That being said, physical experiences alone are not enough."

"The problem is that fans are everywhere and creators can't go everywhere," he said. "And so the way we see it is that you need to have a hybrid approach as a creator in this modern world."