I am pleased to finally announce that we participated in this summer’s Series A round of Zaiko.

Covid-19 has radically disrupted the activity of live events. We believe that not all of this disruption will prove temporary.

Zaiko operated a ticketing platform for concerts and other live performances in Japan. When Covid-19 hit, Zaiko recognized the potentially monumental impact the pandemic could have on live events. In a demonstration of agility that only the nimblest of startups could pull off, Zaiko re-engineered their platform to facilitate live-streamed events. Unfortunately the pandemic worsened, but Zaiko’s gamble has paid off wildly. Today Zaiko represents the indisputable leading platform in Japan for live-streamed concerts. Its D2F business model (direct to fans) allows musicians and other live performance artists to expand their audiences and monetize their creativity in previously unimaginable ways.

In my view, streaming events represents a fresh new medium. In the early days of the worldwide web, the new opportunities for content afforded by the new medium remained to be conceived. I suspect that over time we may witness a similar phenomenon with live performances.