Yahoo Finance The LGBTQ+ community invests in itself with the first global queer streaming service
The first global LGBTQ+ streaming service has teamed up with equity crowdfunding platform SeedInvest to raise at least $250,000 (£196,000) in funding, with a valuation cap of $9m (£7m).
Revry, which launched in 2016 and currently reaches 35 million people in 100 countries, offers a range of queer-themed content that can be streamed on its website, as well as through streaming devices, the iOS app, and several linear streaming channels. On top of films, TV, and digital series, it boasts one of the biggest queer podcast networks in the world.
Now, Revry is partnering with SeedInvest to give users and loyal brand advocates the opportunity to become investors while it’s still a private company. It is offering seven investment levels, beginning with the minimum investment of $500 (£391). Each level rewards investors with distinct perks.
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At the minimum investment level, investors get a free subscription to the service. At the top level, $100,000 (£78,000) investors will receive all the other levels’ rewards plus a paid trip to Revry’s headquarters in Los Angeles for the premiere of one of the network’s original productions and dinner with the company’s co-founders.
Damian Pelliccione, CEO of Revry, said: “We started Revry because we saw the need for truly authentic entertainment made for the ever-growing queer community as it is: diverse, outrageous, groundbreaking and global. In the past, TV channels and [video-on-demand] services that claimed to represent queer people tended to water down our community, often only focusing on gay while males and superficial stories.”
The company said that it wants to be the “new voice” of queer entertainment, aiming not just to distribute LGBTQ+ content, but also to share “genuine queer culture” with the world. It sees crowdfunding with SeedInvest as an opportunity to both engage and allow the LGBTQ+ community to “be invested in itself”.
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Alexandra Tynion from SeedInvest said: “SeedInvest is excited to be working with such a diverse, passionate team of founders who are creating something for a historically marginalised community.”
Revry’s high-profile collaborations with industry heavyweights like Funny or Die, with whom it produced the Emmy nominated series Gay of Thrones, have garnered significant mainstream attention. Recently, the company entered a two-year deal with LGBTQ+ suicide prevention not-for-profit The Trevor Project, to be its official streaming network and exclusive live streaming partner for its star-studded award show TrevorLIVE.
