Discord operates a community-focused communications platform built around user-created servers that enable real-time voice, video and text conversations. The company has added server video, templates to create servers, and increased voice and video capacity by 200% as part of a broader product push. It launched a Safety Center to define rules and give users tools to monitor and manage hate speech and abuse. Discord says the new $100 million funding will help it monitor its user base and promote a broader image beyond gaming. The service reports more than 100 million active users who spend 4 billion minutes in conversation on 6.7 million active servers, and the article also cites that more than 200 million people use the service. Founders Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy framed the shift as moving from a gaming-first product to a place to “hang out and talk” with communities and friends. The company is using product and safety investments to try to erase legacy perceptions tied to extremist users and to court new users and investors. Discord is a gaming chat startup whose bread-and-butter is a voice and text communications service used by more than 200 million active users. The company has pulled in more than $280 million in funding to date after announcing a $150 million round at a $2.05 billion valuation. The new capital was led by Greenoaks Capital with participation from Firstmark, Tencent, IVP, Index Ventures and Technology Opportunity Partners. Discord is also pursuing a bigger play in digital game distribution, launching a global beta of the Discord Store and positioning itself against Valve's Steam. Starting in 2019 the company said it will offer a 90/10 revenue split for self-publishing developers on the store, more favorable than Steam's 70/30. CEO Jason Citron discussed the company's opportunities and challenges at Disrupt SF. Founded in 2012 and pivoting to voice and text chat for gaming in 2015, Discord provides free core chat services to gaming communities while offering a paid Nitro subscription for cosmetic perks. The platform reported rapid user growth with about 45 million registered users and roughly 9 million daily active users. Discord has said it will keep its core product free forever, while exploring additional monetization such as improved subscriptions, video chat, or ecommerce integrations. The company faces competition from TeamSpeak, Skype, Twitch/Curse, and large consumer chat players like Facebook, and must also manage moderation challenges on public servers. Financially, Discord has a history of prior fundraising (around $29 million in confirmed raises plus undisclosed funding) and recently completed a new financing that adds capital for growth. The company aims to use the fresh capital to beef up marketing, grow its audience, and support operations as it scales. Hammer & Chisel’s Discord is a San Francisco–based app that provides free voice and text chat for gamers on both desktop and phone. The product is designed to change how the world’s roughly 270 million gamers communicate while playing online games. Led by founder and CEO Jason Citron, Discord has seen early traction: over three million people have already tried the app. The company plans to use recent funding to grow the team and continue developing the product, with new features planned in the coming months. Financially, it completed a substantial fundraising round (described below) to support those plans.

Total raised

$320M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series H

Latest activity

Jun 2020