Angela Benton’s Streamlytics Raises $1M In Equity Crowdfunding in Just 7 Days

Data analytics startup Streamlytics has raised nearly $1.1 million in just one week on crowdfunding platform Start Engine.

The Los Angeles-based company opened up its equity-based fundraising offering to the public on June 25. Within 24 hours, founder and CEO Angela Benton revealed on Instagram that Streamlytics had raised an impressive $30,000 in investments.

The momentum continued and in a mere seven days, $1,070,000 was raised from crowdfunding investors, the maximum via equity crowdfunding in a 12-month period.

Around 2,200 investors participated in the equity offering, with a minimum investment of $225, based on a $20 million pre-money valuation. Investors were able to select tiered investment packages, which included everything from access to a Streamlytics private Facebook group to a private dinner with the executive team.

Benton told UrbanGeekz that the fundraising campaign enables Streamlytics to partner with the community and also take the brand to the next level.

“We had interest from the public to invest in what we were building for about a year,” said Benton.“Given the state of venture capital for people of color, our Reg-CF [crowdfunding] offering was a powerful tool to raise the capital quickly so that we could focus on business growth and obtain a valuation that was accurate for what we have built.”

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Streamlytics uses data science to provide transparency on what consumers are watching and listening to across streaming platforms. The goal is to help users reclaim ownership of their data and monetize it.

Benton said the idea for her company developed from watching data brokers buy and sell data from content that creators were making, with none of the money returning to the people they got it from.

“How can all of these companies make all of this money and not a cent goes back to everyday people?” she said in a fireside chat with Opportunity Hub.

This she said was a question of ethics, and soon Streamlytics was born.

According to the website, Streamlytics uses “data science to measure what content users are watching and listening to across streaming platforms.” But unlike other platforms, users are the owners of their data and are compensated for sharing their data with the platform.

While she did not completely sidestep traditional venture capital, she did say on Twitter that Streamlytics’ fast crowdfunding success reaffirms her belief in the strength of community

“The power of community is unstoppable,” Angela Benton wrote in a tweet. “More specifically: the power of the Black community is unstoppable. Our resiliency is unmatched. How could you not see this as a smart investment decision just based on pure grit and who is most likely to preserve?”

Streamlytics released the app Clture, its first product to help consumers monetize their data, earlier this year in April. This platform intends to help Black creatives profit off their data and influence.

“We had interest from the public to invest in what we were building for about a year. Given the state of venture capital for people of color, our Reg-CF [crowdfunding] offering was a powerful tool to raise the capital quickly so that we could focus on business growth and obtain a valuation that was accurate for what we have built.”

And with big names like Issa Rae already supporting the brand, Streamlytics is only building in momentum. “Angela’s drive and innovative spirit is the reason why she is a pioneer in the tech space and why I’m excited to partner with her in this endeavor,” said Rae who has taken a minority stake in Streamlytics.

Benton is not a new face to the tech scene. Prior to Streamlytics, she founded NewME, the first accelerator geared toward African Americans. NewMe was acquired in late 2018 by LightHouse, the parent company of the Cincinnati-based Hillman Accelerator program.

Now she joins other black trailblazers who have succeeded at raising the maximum amount under regular crowdfunding.

PopCom founder Dawn Dickson has raised more than $2.3 million via two successful crowdfunding campaigns. Last month Fleeting founder and CEO Pierre Laguerre became the first black man to raise $1.07 million in all regulation crowdfunding platforms.

Join the waitlist to invest in Streamlytics here.

Follow Avalon Pernell on Twitter @simplyavalon