Online Communication and voice Chat platform, Discord has recently announced to raise USD 100 million funding in its latest Series H funding round, following its record to hit over 140 million MAUs (Monthly Active Users).
The additional funding set Discord for USD 7 billion valuation which is almost double than it was six months ago, as reported by TechCrunch. The funding round was led by Greenoaks Capital with participation from existing investors including China’s Tencent, Sparks Capital, Greylock and IVP among several others.
Founded back in 2012 by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord was originally designed for people playing videogames to have a more interactive session with the communities, but users later enjoyed the service for more than just gaming.
However, San Francisco-based company announced recently that it is officially expanding its services beyond the gaming community, as reported by The Verge. The company mentions that this change has been desperately demanded by its users as Discord had already moved beyond gaming and is now used for multiple day-to-day communications.
Moreover, to make it official, Discord redesigned its website with the tagline that says – ‘Your place to talk’. The platform is now appropriate for gaming communities, school and college clubs, art groups or just a group of friends hanging out virtually on an audio platform if that sounds correct.
Following the company’s growth even during the unfortunate times of the COVID-19 pandemic, people relied more on online video and audio communications platforms. When asked about the latest funding, Discord mentions utilising these freshly infused funds to accelerate its investment in new features, building communities and for improving the company in-and-out.
In a blog post, co-founders Citron and Vishnevskiy wrote that games brought many people to their platform and that they will always be grateful for that, but as the time passed, a lot of people realised that they simply wanted a place designed to hang out and talk in the comfort of their friends and communities. Discord is that platform where people can have genuine conversations and spend quality time with their close ones. The app can be used for learning something, sharing ideas, or just catching up with other people.
The communications platform continues to invest in improving reliability and performance for its users, especially non-gamers and the new user experience also includes an increased capacity of voice and video chat.
Another update that rolled out in March includes an increased number from 10 to 50 users who can watch a Livestream simultaneously. According to The Verge, Citron mentioned in a statement that this feature could be useful for teachers using the platform to conduct a class or even collaborations between workers or students or anyone else.
