Livepeer, an Ethereum-based decentralized video streaming service, raises a $40M Series B from Tiger Global and others, bringing its total funding to $51M
Livepeer, a decentralized video streaming platform built on the Ethereum blockchain, has raised $20 million in a Series B extension round.
Context & Ripple Effects
Livepeer's raise closes the loop on a slow build: its $8M Series A in 2019 positioned it as a decentralized marketplace matching encoding providers with developers who need video streaming, and the $40M Series B — $20M of it an extension — takes total funding to $51M. The lead investor is Tiger Global, which has been systematically buying into the creator and streaming stack, including leading Patreon's $155M Series F at a $4B valuation.
The timing is notable: the raise lands while Ethereum is down more than 21% in a week amid the broader crypto selloff, so Tiger is funding Ethereum-based infrastructure into a falling market — consistent with reports that its COVID-era pace of checks fueled a rapid creation of unicorns, and with its 2021 fund showing a 16% gain.
First-order effects
- Livepeer gets a war chest roughly six times its Series A to scale its encoding marketplace, while Tiger Global adds a second creator-economy infrastructure bet to a portfolio already anchored by Patreon.
Second-order effects
- Centralized streaming infrastructure rivals in the coverage — Restream's multi-platform distribution, Genvid's monetization layer, and PE-owned LiveU — now compete against a token-incentivized encoding network whose pricing can be set by open-market supply rather than enterprise sales.
Third-order effects
- If Ethereum-based infrastructure keeps attracting top-tier venture capital through a selloff, video encoding and delivery could restructure from vertically integrated vendors toward marketplaces — though the pattern also feeds scrutiny of Tiger Global's role in the reported unicorn bubble.
The trend: Venture capital is consolidating around decentralized, token-based alternatives to centralized streaming infrastructure, with Tiger Global emerging as the crossover investor of choice across the creator stack.