San Francisco-based startup Flymachine, a virtual venue for live entertainment that organizes live events, announced new funding of $21 million on July 14, 2021. Greycroft Partners and SignalFire led the financing round. Additional participation was from Primary Venture Partners, Contour Venture Partners, Red Sea Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank.
“Virtual events are changing the game for artists, promoters, and fans, but the technology that exists today is pretty underwhelming — videobox, paywall, and a bunch of scrolling nonsense; not exactly what one would call game-changing,” said Andrew Dreskin, CEO and Co-Founder of Flymachine.”
At Flymachine, we’re creating a digital venue of the future, an art medium, and a social meeting place. It offers a level of depth, agency and social interactivity that hadn’t before existed. It’s a pretty cool way to check out a show remotely,” he added.
New investment will go in expanding the network of iconic venue partners
Flymachine will use the new investment in growing its diverse team, expand its network of iconic venue partners, and develop new features for its industry-leading digital events platform as live events are going digital.
“Flymachine is live digital events on a completely different level. The social element is unparalleled, and the artist and fan engagement we’ve seen so far has been amazing. We’ve already heard great feedback from artists and their teams about the potential to connect more with their fans and bring immersive, new experiences to concerts,” said Marty Diamond, Managing Executive at Wasserman Music.
Company to pioneer gen-next virtual entertainment platform
“The Flymachine team’s deep track record of architecting many of the world’s best live entertainment experiences, including Bonnaroo and Outside Lands, of naming a few, aligns perfectly with the massive opportunity to unlock the future of social streaming for live events,” said Wayne Hu, Managing Director at SignalFire.
Flymachine was founded by music industry veterans and digital game-changers, including Co-founder and CEO Andrew Dreskin, the tech visionary who co-founded Ticketfly and TicketWeb. Since the public launch of the Flymachine platform in spring 2021, the company has already hosted a diverse roster of live music performances.
The startup has been gearing up for the return of live touring by establishing a network of iconic venues to deliver hybrid IRL virtual events to fans worldwide. Exclusive agreements are already in place with Bowery Ballroom in New York City, Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco, The Casbah in San Diego, The Crocodile in Seattle, Marathon Music Works in Nashville, Vogue Theatre in Vancouver, and Teragram Ballroom in Los Angeles.
