Agnes Kozera and David Kierzkowski, the co-founders of podcast sponsorship market Podcorn, immediately launched their latest app—Storiaverse, a short-form leisure platform that gives a multi-format studying expertise, combining animated video and written content material.
Obtainable on iOS and Android units, Storiaverse caters to graphic novel readers and grownup animation followers who need to uncover authentic tales in a short-form, animated format.
“Our mission is to make Storiaverse the biggest storytelling platform and to make reading more immersive and engaging,” Kozera instructed TechCrunch, who additionally co-founded YouTube advertising and marketing platform FameBit (which Google acquired in 2016).
“We believe our format not only caters to existing fans of literature and animation but also has the potential to attract wider audiences that are seeking new forms of entertainment…Even people who have shied away from reading because they are more [visual readers] can enjoy reading through our patent-pending read-watch format,” she mentioned.
Picture Credit: Storiaverse
Storiaverse’s “Read-Watch” format is precisely the way it sounds. Customers swipe up on a narrative to look at a collection of animated clips, then faucet on the display to enter studying mode. There’s additionally an choice to skip the movies if they like studying all of the chapters first after which going again to view the animation. Tales vary in size, from 5 minutes lengthy to 10.
At launch, Storiaverse provides 25 authentic titles spanning genres resembling science fiction, fantasy, horror, thriller, and comedy. Creators who launched tales on the app embody animator Josh Ryba, who has contributed to initiatives resembling Netflix reveals “Raised by Wolves” and “One Piece;” animator Jonathan Fontaine, who has labored on the Disney film “Descendants;” and author John M. Floyd, who has been featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s Thriller Journal, amongst others.
Notably, guide writer HarperCollins can also be partnering with the corporate to adapt titles like Madeleine Roux’s horror novel collection Asylum and Joelle Charbonneau’s new fantasy collection Dividing Eden. Moreover, TikTok star and unbiased animator King Science (Science Akbar) is teaming as much as create an unique story on the app.
There are presently over 100 creators working with Storiaverse and greater than 100 tales in growth.
Co-founders Agnes Kozera and David Kierzkowski. Picture Credit: Storiaverse
Storiaverse launches at a time when many creators are panicking about the future of TikTok, the ByteDance-owned short-form video app the place many storytellers have constructed a large viewers (like King Science and his 13 million followers) and use the platform to point out off their work.
Like TikTok and YouTube Shorts, Storiaverse provides a further income stream for creators.
“There is a vast community of independent writers who often struggle for recognition and compensation. We believe their content can be invigorated in a more modern format to reach new readers,” Kozera mentioned, including that Storiaverse compensates each writers and animators for his or her contributions to the app. “The [compensation] fee varies based on factors such as length and complexity of the story,” she defined.
The corporate may additionally take different pages out of its competitor’s playbooks by bringing in adverts, merchandise, and subscriptions. One other concept on the desk is including product placement to movies, Kozera instructed us.
Storiaverse says it has already obtained hundreds of submissions from writers. Creators can apply on Storiaverse’s website. When writers are accepted, they’re linked with an animator who helps convey the phrases to life.
The corporate can also be constructing a Creator Suite for creators to collaborate with one another, entry story efficiency insights and discover “more monetization opportunities,” Kozera mentioned.
Storiaverse has raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding led by 500 World.
