A $5 million seed round of funding led by Vector Inc. and Skystar Capital has been raised by Bythen, an Indonesian platform that makes lovable digital characters for online creators.
The company said in a statement on Tuesday that prominent angel investors like Ryan Lee (co-founder of Pinkfong Company) and William Tanuwijaya (co-founder of Tokopedia) participated in the round, along with East Ventures, BEENEXT, OSK, and AppWorks.
Bythen plans to launch globally with this round of funding and hopes to onboard 15,000 virtual influencers this year from a variety of industries, such as Web3, gaming, and other well-known verticals.
Bythen plans to launch both its first original IP collection and collaboration collections with renowned international IP owners in the upcoming months.
“Bythen is all about amplifying creators’ potential. By providing an accessible platform and revenue-sharing model, we’re cultivating an environment where anyone can thrive as a virtual creator,” said Kevin Mintaraga, Co-founder of Bythen and former Chief Marketing Officer of Tokopedia.
Bythen, which was founded in 2024, gives users the ability to create original content, broadcast live, and turn customized characters into “Bytes,” AI-powered digital twins that open up new avenues for enhancing online visibility and making money off of influence.
The platform uses AI-powered content creation to automate 24/7 engagement across multiple social media platforms, democratizing access for anyone in the world to become a virtual influencer.
By distributing profits to its creator community, it uses a revenue-sharing model to build an ecosystem where its global community shares in its success and growth.
By empowering users to use their Byte as a distinctive social media representation, it allows them to create content on their own and respond to videos on various platforms, increasing their influence and opening up revenue-generating opportunities.
Additionally, users can utilize their Byte for live streaming on YouTube and Twitch, either manually or automatically, and for video calls on Zoom or Google Meet.
To increase their influence and make money off of their online presence, users can use an AI-powered tool to produce and download personalized content that highlights their Byte.
Having co-founded Magnivate (acquired by WPP in 2012) and Bridestory (acquired by Tokopedia in 2019), the founding team at Bythen has been working together for 16 years. They include longtime partners Kevin Mintaraga, Erick Saputra, Ferry Dianto, and Nathalia Isadora. William Nagata, who leads business development after holding leadership positions at Shopee, a prominent brand aggregator company in Indonesia, joins them.
The team decided to start Bythen because they saw a significant shift in the market toward pseudonymous social media personas and fundamental shifts in the values of younger users toward freedom of expression, privacy, and the desire to create digital identities that are less reliant on physical characteristics.
