Medallion, a direct artist-to-fan platform that enables white-label fan experiences and digitally native commerce for artists, has closed $13.7 million of Series A funding. The round was co-led by Dragonfly and Lightspeed Faction, alongside technology investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Infinite Capital, J17, The Chernin Group, Third Prime, and Zeal Capital, as well as music industry investors including Bill Silva Entertainment, Black Squirrel, Guy Lawrence of Disclosure, Foundations Artist Management, Jungle, Mt. Joy, Method, Tiga, and TAG Music.
The company intends to use this capital to accelerate an ambitious technical roadmap to deliver net new revenue opportunities for artists and immersive experiences for community members around pivotal artist moments.
Medallion – “Digital Deluxe” Portrait
Since launching in 2022, Medallion’s technology has enabled artists to launch community-driven digital environments and target their highest-intent fans to deliver exclusive access to drops, merchandise, and experiences. Medallion-powered communities quickly became artists’ fastest-growing community channel, attracting 86% more members than their Facebook Groups, 161% more than Reddit, and 206% more than Discord.
Medallion’s most recent product release is Digital Deluxe, a chart-eligible format in the UK, Australia, and Germany. The premium product seamlessly integrates exclusive audio and visual content to tell the story behind the music. Jungle’s most recent album landed at #3 on the UK charts, propelled in part by launching an experiential Digital Deluxe version of the album within their Medallion community. As consumers continue to embrace collecting physical music formats, Digital Deluxe offers fans a premium digital alternative with more immersive content straight from the artist.
Matt Jones, CEO of Medallion
“Artists owning direct access to their fans is critical, but they also need more ways to deliver value for it to drive impact.” — stated Matt Jones, CEO of Medallion
While streaming has opened up access to music and social media and created new channels for direct distribution, the full potential of direct artist-to-fan connections has not been realized. Medallion’s artist-centric approach and emphasis on digitally native fan experiences are helping usher in a new, transformative period for artists.
Medallion “TYCHO” Portrait
“Artists are starting to understand they are not just content creators but brands themselves, and as a result are building multimodal businesses that go beyond simply music and content. Medallion is building the infrastructure to enable artists to directly interact with their highest intent customers through new and exclusive products and experiences, while simultaneously owning the customer relationship themselves and driving net new revenue opportunities around their IP. We believe this paradigm shift will permeate across the entirety of the creator economy.” — stated Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly
Medallion is led by technology, e-commerce, and music industry veterans from Songkick, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Grailed, Warner Music Group, and Live Nation. Before the Series A round, the company raised more than $9 million of seed funding in 2022 from investors including The Chernin Group, Polygon Ventures, Mike Shinoda, Betaworks, Red Light Ventures, and Noise DAO, along with current Medallion artists iLLENNIUM and Tycho.
Medallion “First Listen” Portrait
“Artists only have direct relationships with a fraction of their fanbase. Medallion solves this problem by unlocking a direct artist-to-fan connection. The team has a history of building pioneering technology for the world’s biggest artists, and we are thrilled to back them on this journey.” — stated Will Leas at Lightspeed Faction
Medallion is a direct-to-consumer platform built for artists. Its technology gives artists the ability to reach, engage, and monetize their most valuable fans. With a rapidly growing roster of artists, Medallion is paving the way to put artists at the forefront of their success.
Artists hosting their communities on Medallion include Disclosure’s Friends and Family, Tycho’s Open Source, JUNGLE’s JFC, Sigur Rós’ HEIMR, Santigold’s FANCLUB, Palaye Royale’s Royal Council, iLLENIUM’s Phoenix Family, Greta Van Fleet’s Electric Tomb, My Morning Jacket’s One Big Family, Gryffin’s GRYFFAM, Mt. Joy’s Astrofam, Tessa Violet’s Ultraviolet, Gus Dapperton’s Cumulonimbus, Tiga’s TigaNonStop, as well as the music festival All Things Go Boomfy’s Besties.
Medallion – “Ticket Presale” Portrait
About Dragonfly
Dragonfly is a global, crypto-focused investment firm that partners with crypto founders in all stages of development, from seed to series D. Dragonfly focuses on working closely with founders to solve their most pertinent problems, including tech, product, and go-to-market. Dragonfly has over $1.5B in assets under management across multiple funds. For more information, visit dragonfly.xyz.
About Lightspeed Faction
Lightspeed Faction is a leading blockchain-native venture capital firm that merges Silicon Valley VC experience with deep blockchain expertise. Faction typically invests in early-stage startups across the blockchain ecosystem that are in their Seed or Series A funding rounds. Faction is firmly committed to the growth of the crypto space, investing in projects with the potential to meaningfully contribute to and advance the industry and society at large. For more information, please visit faction.vc.