Discord Raises $50M And Hires Former Twitch Executive

Discord, the company behind the synonymous voicechat app for gamers, has quietly raised an impressive $50 million in the past year or so.

While Discord gained its initial start as a game developer, the 2013 release of the ill-fated mobile MOBA Fates Forever veered them off course into a new direction. Fastforward to 2015, Discord has just unveiled the voicechat platform with a dedicated userbase that would soon grow to 45 million users and 9 million daily active logins by 2017.

It has no doubt been a long journey since their game development days, but Discord's odyssey has just begun. Having acquired a cool $50 million earlier in January with a valuation of $725 million, Discord is not backing down against other voicechat platform heavyweights such as Skype, Faceobook Chat and Twitch's new Curse client.

“We are extremely proud of the impact Discord is making and the progress of our mission to connect people around their love of gaming. This has resonated with our community and also the investment community who see the value in what we are creating. Any investment we earn is poured directly into making Discord better and supporting the massive growth we’ve seen over the past year.”

— Discord CEO Jason Citron

Discord is upping their game plan, and has already expended some of its funds on cashing out the secondary stocks of its employees. A source has allegedly divulged that this was a move to "ensure that everyone’s interests are aligned", given as Discord had pivoted from its start as a game developer, "not every employee who began with the company remains well-suited to its current mission".

In another bold move, Discord has appointed industry veteran and former Twitch executive Andy Swanson as Discord's new head of Publisher Relations. Swanson has spent the last four years working on the Twitch platform, liaising closely with publishers and developers to "help them better understand how to get the most out of the service". With Swanson's valuable addition to the team, Discord is showing its dedication to reaching out and sustainably managing its growing community.

All in all, this has been a good year for Discord. Hopefully, we will be seeing improvements and new features from the platform, including the addition of video chat. As the company grows bigger, it will be interesting to see what Discord will be doing next to reach its next milestone.