Visible Realms after NSS: 3 billion views on TikTok, closed seed funding and signed with Atlantic Records
You might remember our alumni Visible Realms from our previous article.
Since then, Visible Realms has experienced massive and rapid growth with its Studio Killers IP.
Studio Killers’ hit song ‘Jenny’ has become a viral sensation on TikTok with over 3 BILLION views.
‘Jenny’ has also accumulated over 110 million views on YouTube and more than 117 million streams on Spotify, landing the electropop virtual band a deal with one of America’s most renowned record labels: Atlantic Records — home to music stars like ABBA, Albert King, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, etc.
Studio Killers is the first Finnish artist to have ever signed a deal with Atlantic Records.
Meanwhile, the team has also been working on the pilot of their animation series while simultaneously developing their first fashion mobile game. So how have they done all of this while also securing €150k funding?
Btw, “Jenny” is a truly catchy song. Play it while reading the article!
“Nordic Startup School and After School have been integral for me and my team to refocus on the business mindset”. — Eliza Jäppinen, Founder and CEO of Visible Realms
The journey continues after NSS
After finishing the Startup School program at the beginning of summer 2020, Visible Realms became an NSS portfolio company and got continuous support from us and our partners: Aki Luukkainen, Ilkka Kaikuvuo, Merituuli Vainio, and Pedro Silva, who have been working closely with Eliza and the team.
Aki and Ilkka, both with huge experience working with startups, helped Visible Realms on the business side, more specifically with finance and fundraising. They helped in making the company more fundable by refining their pitch deck, building an investor profile, finding and contacting investors, and organizing events to attract even more investors to the company.
“The general business know-how Visible Realms has gained at NSS has been fantastic, especially the legal aspects and fundraising” Eliza shared
Merituuli brought fresh insights from marketing and sales perspectives. She also worked with them on improving their pitch deck, refining the material for investors, and clarifying what the next steps for Visible Realms are.
Pedro, with expertise in software engineering, helped the startup with the development of the mobile game. He advised Visible Realms on several issues, ranging from data analysis, JIRA bug tracking, technological choices such as which software and platforms to use, all the way to key metrics to understand the target players. Pedro also participated in testing and providing feedback on the beta version of the application.
A fruitful period
Between the end of 2020, beginning of 2021, Studio Killer’s hit ‘Jenny’ unexpectedly became a Tiktok sensation without any deliberate effort from the team. It all started with their fans doing a challenge and creating content on the platform using Jenny’s tune and lyrics.
4 months later they hit a total of 3 billion views on Tiktok and at the same time released a remix of Jenny with Kim Petras which now has 3 million views on Youtube.
This is a monumental milestone for Visible Realms. The company has not only received amazing validation from Studio Killers’ incredibly devoted fan base, but with this momentum, Visible Realms has also received interest from investors and secured its seed-stage funding this summer.
NSS not only invested time and knowledge but also support Visible Realms with over €20k in funding while helping them raise over €70k. Until this point, along with funding raised from other projects, Visible Realms has raised almost €150k during their journey with NSS.
“The whole journey from Nordic Startup School to After School, to where we are now has been solidifying for our company. It has given us a solid business foundation. Our ambitions remain the same, but after NSS we just have a smarter and more realistic business approach to it” — Eliza Jäppinen
If there is one thing we pride ourselves in, it is that at NSS it is all about the people, not the money. We nurture startups from birth to death and beyond, and Visible Realms is no exception.
We want to build an ecosystem that is based on a community of amazingly cool human beings with great business ideas. At NSS we want to provide only the highest quality mentors to high-quality startups. If you want your company to be featured as the next success story just as Visible Realms, apply to the NSS program!
