Patreon reportedly valued at $450m
Crowdfunding platform is on course to pay content creators $150m by the end of 2017
A new round of funding has apparently raised the value of Patreon to roughly $450m, and it's expected to continue growing as a source of revenue for content creators.
The site offers a different take on crowdfunding; instead of pledging one-off donations towards a specific project, users pay a monthly subscription fee for access to a creator's ongoing work.
Sources have told TechCrunch that Patreon has closed a major Series C round of funding, with Index Ventures identified as one of the investors. It is also claimed the round will value the platform at roughly $450m, although Patreon has yet to comment.
Patreon now boasts over 50,000 creators, with plenty who are focused on video games in some way among them. Many are independent games journalists, or YouTubers and other types of influencers, but there also indie developers and modders using the site to secure a guaranteed monthly income as well.
The new funding is expected to be invested in helping Patreon expand its capabilities to support creators and compete with leading platforms like YouTube. The key is in Patreon's higher payouts for creators. YouTube for example pays channel hosts 55% of the ad revenue earned from their videos, while Patreon promises 95% of subscribers' fees go to the creator.
The site's userbase of over 1m subscribers reportedly pays an average of $12 per month for access to these creators' content, with Patreon reportedly on course to pay out $150m by the end of the year, meanwhile only taking $7.5m for itself.
With better marketing and perhaps the investment in more tools for its creators, Patreon will no doubt want to raise awareness of the 95% reward companies and artists get by using its platform to gather a community of loyal and paying subscribers.