Jellysmack announced its strategic partnership with Asia’s top creator economy company, WebTVAsia, earmarking over US$30 million to accelerate the growth of top video creators in the Asia Pacific region.
WebTVAsia is one of YouTube’s largest partners in Asia, with a roster of top creators that reach 880 million subscribers.
The partnership marks Jellysmack’s most significant investment in the region to date.
The funding means WebTVAsia’s content creators can propel growth forward with capital to take their businesses to the next level through hiring teams, building new studio space, launching products, increasing quality content creation, and more. Simply put, the funds empower top creators to bet on themselves.
Ezechiel Ritchie, Jellysmack’s general manager APAC, said: “Partnering with WebTVAsia to deploy capital to APAC creators is a unique opportunity. They are a key partner that understands the pulse of Asia and can foster creators’ growth via our creator financing program.”
“This initiative is going to have a huge impact on content creators in the region enabling them to scale up through a variety of new financial technology solutions personalised to their unique needs, and I can’t wait to see the results.”
Jellysmack, whose roster includes major creators like MrBeast, How Ridiculous, JianHao Tan, Food Kingdom, Junya, and PewDiePie, uses artificial intelligence to detect promising creators and helps skyrocket their social growth with multi-platform content optimisation and distribution. To date, Jellysmack has earned over US$175 million for creators.
The new partnership further strengthens Jellysmack’s support of top global creators and aligns with WebTVAsia’s mission to empower Asian Pacific creators with opportunities and resources to maximize the return on the investment of their content.
WebTVAsia founder and group CEO Fred Chong said: “WebTVAsia was one of the first to invest into the creator economy of Asia since 2013. In the past 3-year pandemic-hit period alone, we have generated over US$100 million in direct income for creators. Our long-term relationship is built on 3 ‘F’ values that creators desire most: Fame, Fortune and Freedom (to create).”
“As a creator myself, I see this partnership with Jellysmack as a game-changer that will open up new possibilities for creators to bridge the Web 2.0 and 3.0 worlds. The next 6-12 months will see us launching exciting new creator tools and solutions including content NFTs, digital wallet, virtual identity for metaverse, fan community, and Web 2.5 monetisation models.”
WebTVAsia’s leading creator network of 3,500 channels spans 10 APAC markets and commands 8 billion monthly views from over 880 million subscribers.
The company’s vision of transforming creators into stars has produced numerous famous filmmakers, actors, live streamers, vloggers, gamers, musicians, and entrepreneurs.
WebTVAsia has partnered with global media companies like Google/YouTube, Meta, TikTok, Universal Music, Warner Music, and Tencent to jointly develop digital talent in Asia.
The partnership is a part of Jellysmack’s newly established creator finance division, JellyFi, which is a $500M initiative to help creators achieve their boldest ambitions.
A tech-powered creator growth solution, JellyFi allows creators to use Jellysmack’s unique algorithm to analyze video performance, estimate future earnings, and calculate the value of their videos to receive financing options.
The customised financial solution empowers creators to grow their businesses, by delivering upfront funding so that they can focus on doing what they do best – creating must-watch content for their audiences.
The deal with WebTVAsia follows Jellysmack’s nine-figure Series C investment from SoftBank, which propelled the company to a unicorn valuation last year.
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Top image: Ezechiel Ritchie and Fred Chong