UPDATED 13:53 EDT / JANUARY 19 2017

APPS

Fig raises $7.8M for its profit-sharing crowdfunding game platform

Fig today announced that it has just closed a $7.8 million funding round for its video game crowdfunding platform that allows backers to share in the profits of successful projects.

The funding round was led by Spark Capital and Greycroft, along with investments from Resolute Ventures, NextView Ventures and Draft Ventures.

It has been a little over a year since Fig launched its crowdfunding platform, and since then the site has had a string of successful projects that have raised a total of $8.7 million. Most of this money came from two campaigns in particular, both of which were for long awaited sequels to popular games: “Psychonauts 2,” which raised over $3.8 million; and “Wasteland 3” (pictured), which raised $3.1 million.

In a recent blog post, Fig also boasted that its campaigns have 78 percent success rate, but this is partly because the platform is picky about what projects it allows on its site.

While Fig allows users to contribute to campaigns using the backer reward model made popular by sites such as Kickstarter, it also allows users to back projects as non-accredited investors. In return, they receive a share in the profits from the final product based on its success and the amount they invested.

fig-campaign-successes

According to Fig, not only is the investor route popular with users, but the people who choose this option tend to contribute significantly more money to those campaigns than standard backers.

“The opportunity for fans to invest in the games they believe in opens up an entirely new narrative in the evolution of crowdfunding,” Fig Chief Executive Justin Bailey said in a statement. “Fans on our platform have already demonstrated that they’re willing to invest over 20 times more money per person for equity over rewards. This creates an avenue of funding for independent games that has never existed before. In addition, our model is allowing investors to reduce content risk by finding out if there’s sufficient market demand through fan funding prior to completing development.”

Bailey added, “Looking forward, we’re exploring the possibility of amplifying the impact of fans even further by inviting institutional investors who have already expressed interest in our unique model to provide matching funds across our platform.”

While equity crowdfunding is hardly a new concept, only accredited investors could legally participate in it until June 2015, when an amendment to the JOBS Act enabled non-accredited investors to take part as well.

Images courtesy of Fig

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