Photo Credit: Michal Mrozek
X/Twitter rival Bluesky has announced a $15 million Series A funding raise, with a promise to provide a ‘path to monetization’ for creators. That’s a stark difference from the Elon Musk-owned platform currently fighting not to pay music publishers.
The funding round was led by Blockchain Capital with participation from Alumni Ventures, True Ventures, SevenX, Amir Shevat of Darkmode, co-creator of Kubernetes Joe Beda, and others. Bluesky says its investors share their philosophy that technology should serve the user, not the reverse.
“This does not change the fact that the Bluesky app and the AT Protocol do not use blockchains or cryptocurrency, and we will not hyperfinancialize the social experience through tokens, crypto-trading, NFTs,” the announcement reads. Bluesky says the fundraise will help it to continue supporting and growing the Bluesky community, investing in Trust and Safety, and supporting the ATmosphere developer ecosystem.
Bluesky also plans to develop a subscription model for features like higher-quality video uploads, profile customization, and more. The platform will always be free to use and Bluesky commits to not upranking accounts who subscribe to a payment tier just because they pay (unlike Elon Musk’s X/Twitter).
“We’re proud of our vibrant community of creators, including artists, writers, developers, and more and we want to establish a voluntary monetization path for them as well. Part of our plan includes building payment services for people to support their favorite creators and projects,” Bluesky says. Think of it like an in-platform Patreon, where subscribers to creators can pay them directly for the content they create on the platform.
Bluesky now has more than 13 million users and has been rapidly growing as entire countries experience an exodus from X/Twitter. Elon Musk’s row with Brazil over the platform caused Bluesky membership to surge during the brief period that X/Twitter was banned in Brazil.
