Avium, a Singapore-based startup building a network of studios by leveraging Web3 infrastructure, has secured US$2 million in pre-seed capital led by Saison Capital. Along with them were East Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Ricky Ow (ex-Warner Media), and Hepmil Media Group. Avium builds an entertainment brand to greenlight original content by the studios behind Marvel Comics, Valve, Netflix, Prime Video, and Tencent.
EVOS Esports Founder’s New Startup Avium Lands US$2M Funding
Avium was founded by Ivan Yeo, Nathanael Lim, and Eugene Yap. EVOS Esports, a well-known e-sports organization in Southeast Asia with more than 100 million followers throughout its talent network, was founded by Yeo in the past. For Huobi, Binance, Facebook, and Razer, Lim works as a blockchain lawyer. Yap has completed assignments for Morgan Stanley and Partners Group as a former strategic consultant.
The Founders’ Pass collection, an NFT created to reward the artists and studios establishing Avium’s brand, lies at the heart of the company’s ecosystem. Entrepreneurs, artists, and creators get access to the exclusive community developing the Avium brand with the founding team when they own an Avium Founders Pass. Owners of Founders’ Passes are regarded as original members of Avium and have the privilege to develop relationships with studios and producers while capitalizing on the brand. More than 10,000 loyal followers who are very active have joined the Web3 startup’s community across its different social media channels. Two prominent local animation and art studios, Caravan Studios and Circle Studios, have joined Avium. Caravan has developed entertainment IP for household brands, including Marvel Comics, Netflix, Prime Video, Lego, Legends of Runeterra, and Clash Royale. On the other hand, Circle Studios is the developer of Valve, Tencent, Dota, and Mobile Legends.
The Avium ecosystem gathers stakeholders across the entire value chain required to create and produce entertainment in all forms of animated content. This includes the end-to-end process of the following terms:
- Development of original studio entertainment (via creatives, digital artists, rendering teams, producers and more).
- Creation of media and consumer products (via comics, animations and merchandising).
- Distribution through media networks (brand distribution via content creators and e-sports channels).
“What catalyzed Avium was the realization that Southeast Asia’s studios deserve a better IP pathway to success. Globally, we already know their work via household gaming and media characters but have yet to give them an industry-recognised path to showcase the full spectrum of their brilliance,” said Co-Founder Yeo.