How Avium is building a Web3 media brand blending entertainment and e-sports

Ivan Yeo stepped down as the CEO of EVOS ESports, a leading e-sports startup he co-founded, in 2021 to focus on his health and handed over its rein to a new generation of leaders. During this time, he started in-depth research about Web3, one of the most talked-about sectors globally.

As he dug deeper, Yeo realised the enormous potential Web3 presents and the disruptive capability across multiple industries it carries.

This landed him on the idea of Avium.

“Avium is building a network of studios by leveraging Web3 infrastructure,” Yeo says. “We are building an entertainment brand to greenlight original content by the Southeast Asian studios behind Marvel Comics, Valve, Netflix, Prime Video, and Tencent.”

Yeo believes that one of the key ingredients of building a successful brand is to capture attention. Avium is doing this by establishing multiple channels.

Also Read: Web3 games should aim to have sustainable tokenomics, ecosystems: Froyo Games’s Douglas Gan

“Our first channel is creating our original content, characters and stories, and we’re supported by hundreds of artists and creators from top Southeast Asia studios working on this. This will eventually be distributed across various social media and content platforms in multiple formats, such as audio, comics, and animation,” he shares.

The second channel is via Avium Esports, which Yeo claims to be the first ever decentralised e-sports team. It allows the startup to establish its presence and gain attention in the gaming sector, drawing eyeballs and creating legions of diehard fans.

“So building Avium as a brand means continually building these avenues for us to capture attention and further develop them,” adds Yeo, who successfully turned EVOS into an organisation with a presence in four countries. EVOS has raised over US$16 million across several rounds and employs over 60 full-time professional gamers and 300 exclusive talents under its brand.

The Founders’ Pass collection — an NFT designed to incentivise the creatives and studios building Avium’s brand — is at the centre of Avium’s ecosystem. It is an all-access pass to the Avium ecosystem. It means the Founders’ Pass holders get auto-access to a curated community, direct access to the project core team, exclusive events, creative resources and subsequent collections by Avium, including the upcoming Origins collection. The pass holders are also considered Avium’s founding members, with rights to build with studios and producers while leveraging the brand.

The benefits for studios

Every artist dreams of creating their original IP and being recognised for the brilliant work they produce. However, bringing original content to fruition and mass distribution remains difficult because Southeast Asia lacks a supporting ecosystem (seen in Hollywood) to enable this.

As a result, much of the work undertaken by Southeast Asian studios is only seen as “outsourced”. While they may be working on blockbuster Hollywood titles, they are minimally recognised, have no claims to the art they produce, and do not participate in the value created downstream (distribution, merchandising, etc.).

“Using the collaborative and community-driven culture of Web3, Avium works with studios to produce original content and intellectual property (IP). Together with our ecosystem partners, we assist them with community building, marketing, NFT technology and smart contract deployment. That’s the unique thing about Web3. The community backing the project is ultimately the same fans who can enjoy their creations,” he elaborates.

Avium and EVOS

Yeo believes there is an opportunity for collaboration between Avium and e-sports, specifically EVOS. For now, the Web3 startup is endorsing and supporting Slate Esports, a decentralised e-sports organisation owned by the players and the community.

Slate was formed by SEA Games Bronze Medalist duo Akihiro’ JPL’ Furusawa and Daryl ‘Youngin’ Ng after EVOS released them in late July. Both are Founders’ Pass holders. With the endorsement, Slate will leverage Avium’s ecosystem and represent the brand through the decentralised ownership model by utilising the pass.

“The decentralised ownership model is one of the first use cases of Founders’ Pass, allowing community members to utilise the Avium brand. Ownership by the players and fans aligns incentives better and allows them to participate in brand value growth, compared to Web2 business model,” Yeo explains.

Also Read: EVOS Esports Founder’s new Web3 media startup Avium lands US$2M funding

Avium has also onboarded two renowned regional art and animation companies — Caravan Studios and Circle Studios. Caravan has developed entertainment IP for household brands, including Marvel Comics, Netflix, Prime Video, Lego, Legends of Runterra, and Clash Royale. Circle Studios is the company behind Valve, Tencent, Dota, and Mobile Legends.

“For us, Caravan and Circle are not just teams of people we outsource to or just there to get the work done. We acknowledge and work with them as ecosystem partners, symbolising a deeper relationship between the creators and what’s created. Ecosystem partners are active participants in the Avium ecosystem. The more they succeed, the stronger the Avium ecosystem becomes. So it was important to find partners aligned with the vision of what we are building,” Yeo says as he shares the reasoning behind the partnerships.

Last week, Avium received US$2 million in a pre-seed round led by Saison Capital and joined by East Ventures, Mirana Ventures, Ricky Ow (ex-Warner Media), and Hepmil Media Group. The fund will be deployed to build the brand and IP in line with its vision to become the most prominent Web3 media and entertainment company.

“We will deploy the capital to fund the costs of creating original content and characters in the Avium world, publishing stories in the media, and establishing our content creator network and presence in e-sports,” Yeo concludes.

—

The post How Avium is building a Web3 media brand blending entertainment and e-sports appeared first on e27.