Mod.io, a user-generated content (UGC) mod sharing platform in Australia secured 26 million USD during its Series A round. The funding is led by Chinese tech and video game giant Tencent and the venture capital arm of LEGO. The joint venture also includes Makers Fund, PlayVentures, Sequoia Capital India's Surge, GameTech Ventures, and OIF Ventures.
The Melbourne startup, launched in 2019, aims to build a community that enables gamers to code and modify their own content for their favourite games. The platform currently has 8.5 million registered creators and artists for over 80 games featured on the platform, including Saber Interactive’s Snow Runner and Landfall’s Totally Accurate Battle Simulator. According to startupdaily.net, it is estimated 20 million pieces of UGC mods and art are distributed using mod.io to over 3 million users monthly. The company predicted that by 2025, one in every 10 dollars spent on gaming would be spent on UGC, a 400% increase on current levels.
Wang Bo, corporate vice president of Tencent, stressed the importance of user-generated content in the future of gaming. Wang highlighted that many of today's popular games, like PUBG and Counterstrike, started as user-generated content and mods. “For over two decades, Scott and his team have been instrumental in supporting the growth of this community. As a stakeholder in the future of this industry, Tencent is proud to support mod.io on its path to unlock creativity across the gaming ecosystem.”
Source:
https://mod.io/blog/modio-raises-26m-series-a