ChangeTip, a San Francisco, CA-based social media tipping platform, raised a $3.5m seed funding round.
The round was led by Bitcoin investment firm Pantera Capital, with participation from Bold Start Ventures, DCG, CryptoCurrency Partners, 500 Startups, and others.
The company intends to use the funds for product enhancement, platform engineering development, and user acquisition.
Led by Nick Sullivan, founder and CEO, and COO John Q. Smith, ChangeTip leverages Bitcoin blockchain technology to operate a social media tipping platform by which users can send money over 35 different social media platforms or content showcase channels (including Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, and GitHub). They can reward content creators with small amounts of money by way of a simple online comment or reply.
The company’s product suite also includes the Tip.Me widget, which allows any content producer (artist, writer, musician, publication, etc.) to accept tips via the platform.
According to a note, typical tipping events include people tipping one another for comment appreciation, or as a gift; people tipping to reward insightful publications or worthy content marketing material; tipping favorite musicians, actors, writers or other public figures; tipping songs or drawings; tipping in place of the “Like” or “Upvote” buttons to give the action practical meaning; tipping as a way to repay small debts; and tipping as a way to make small donations to charities and other non-profit entities.
ChangeTip currently connects over 50,000 social media or content showcase accounts and facilitates transaction sizes ranging from $0.00001 up to $100.
FinSMEs
02/12/2014