If you ask a group of kids what they want to be when they grow up, a number of them might say YouTube creator or Twitch streamer. Content creation and streaming are becoming a more popular way to grow an online audience and earn money. And because of COVID-19 restrictions, organizations outside of technology are turning to livestreaming for their events.
Restream wants to provide these individuals and organizations with the tools to reach a wider audience.
On Thursday, Restream announced that it raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by Sapphire Ventures and Insight Partners.
With this new funding, the company is officially launching Restream Studio, a digital broadcast production platform that allows businesses and creators to stream across more than 30 social platforms at the same time — including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch, Twitter, YouTube and more. Restream Studio also provides streamers with the ability to add overlays, logos, chat features and analytics to their livestreams.
Restream says that it has a community of over two million streamers who broadcast an average of eight million livestreams per month. Although Restream originally launched as a service for video game streamers, it’s now used by Fortune 500 companies, celebrities, politicians, the media and more. Among its long list of users is the World Health Organization, which used Restream to broadcast its One World: Together at Home charity concert in April of 2020. This concert reached an audience of 270 million viewers across the world.
The company has seen a 300 percent increase in monthly views since January, and it’s planning to use this funding to keep up the pace with this demand. It plans to expand its product offering, grow its global footprint and hire for various roles.
Restream is headquartered in Austin, with an office in Kyiv, Ukraine.
“As the world shifts entirely to online and virtual, live streaming has become an essential way for creators and brands to engage their communities around the world. This year, we’ve seen our growth skyrocket. Live streaming is now critical to every organization’s social media strategy.” CEO and co-founder Alex Khuda said in a statement. “Our mission has always been to make it super easy to go live on all your social platforms and with this new investment, we will continue to bring new, powerful solutions like Studio to market to support our quickly growing community of creators and businesses.”
