GammaTime, a West Hollywood-based streaming platform focusing on a genre of short films called micro-dramas, announced it raised $14 million in seed funding.
The seed round was led by Israel-based venture funds Vgames and Pitango. Other investors included celebrities Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner and Alexis Ohanian, who co-founded online forum Reddit Inc. in 2005. Ohaninan also started early-stage venture firm Seven Seven Six based in Jupiter, Florida in 2020.
GammaTime is helmed by Chief Executive Bill Block, who ran the Miramax studio from 2017 to 2023. Slava Mudrykh, a former Google games executive, will serve as chief revenue officer. Alex Montalvo will take the role of chief content officer. He is an alumnus of Quibi, a mobile-only shortform streaming service that shuttered in late 2020 after burning through $1 billion in funding.
The micro-drama genre typically offers 90-second episodic series with soap opera-like content. It became highly popular in China during the pandemic, according to the Los Angeles Times. However, in an email to the Business Journal, Block said the format’s time has arrived in America.
“It has already been embraced in the United States,” Block wrote. “More than 70% of the revenues come from the United States and not the rest of the world. Hence, GammaTime is embracing and extending what has been working and making money here for the last two years.”
One of GammaTime’s content makers is Anthony E. Zuiker, the franchise creator of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” according to statement from the platform.
