Discord Raises Additional $150 Million in Funding

Gaming-focused voice and text chat app Discord recently raised an additional $150 million in funding, it announced on Friday.

The new round of funding was led by Greenoaks Capital, which now joins Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, IVP, Spark Capital, and Tencent Holdings as an investor. Greenoaks is a private firm that makes long-term investments in technology companies around the globe.

Discord turned three earlier this year and has over 200 million users. Its new funding comes shortly after the launch of its own digital games store and subscription service. The store offers new, limited-time exclusive games along with a curated selection of widely available titles. The subscription service, called Nitro, costs about $10 a month and currently includes a library of more than 60 games.

Discord launched its new store alongside the news it’s offering game developers 90% of all revenue made on the platform. The decision is seemingly a response to Epic Games’ launch of its own store, where it will give game makers 88% of all revenue. A week earlier, Valve said it was also adjusting its revenue share split with developers and will now give them 70-80% of all revenue.

“Earlier this year though, we noticed a change happening in the game industry. We talked to a lot of developers, and many of them feel that current stores are not earning their 30% of the usual 70/30 revenue share,” Discord CEO and founder Jason Citron said in a recent letter explaining the revenue split. “Because of this, we now see developers creating their own stores and launchers to distribute their games instead of focusing on what’s really important — making great games and cultivating amazing communities.”

“Turns out, it does not cost 30% to distribute games in 2018,” he added. “After doing some research, we discovered that we can build amazing developer tools, run them, and give developers the majority of the revenue share.”

Related stories

Discord Store Will Grant Developers 90% Revenue Share Starting in 2019

Hate Groups Are Using Online Games To Recruit Teens (Report)

Discord Curated Store, Subscription Service, Universal Library Is Live

Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts!