Hollywood’s first and only SEC-regulated crowdfunding platform and digital community has been launched with Untold, CryptoMonday learned from a press release. The platform aims to become the place where filmmakers, investors and distributors connect to curate and fund crowdfunded content.
The developers have a single-minded agenda: Namely, they want to democratise the production of entertainment content, starting with films. Untold.io offers both accredited and non-accredited investors a unique investment opportunity, the press release continues. The minimum amount for an investment is said to be 1,000 US dollars.
Anyone can invest
Unlike traditional crowdfunding models in the media sector, which only allow participants to donate to film production, Untold is said to be the first platform in the US to allow real investment.
Investors and producers can sign up on the platform to back or list a project. Credit cards and ACH bank transfers, among others, are accepted. Payments in cryptocurrencies are currently not possible. But the company is “closely monitoring the digital asset ecosystem to implement blockchain solutions in the future, including for payments,” they promise in the press release.
Ali M. Aksu, international film producer and also founder and CEO of the company, commented on the news as follows:
We founded Untold to respond to the growing demand for streaming content while providing an investment opportunity unlike anything the financial industry has ever seen. All projects go through an extensive due diligence process to showcase projects from studios large and small, leading production houses and independent producers, while providing both retail and institutional investors with an easy and safe way to invest.
First film with DeNiro and Morgan Freeman to be released in November
UNTOLD was founded at MIT in 2018 and incubated at Singularity University in Silicon Valley in 2019 to accelerate the production cycle and give small investors the opportunity to participate in the world of digital content.
Successful projects offer a variety of benefits that can range from attending film premieres to being included in the credits to receiving NFTs. In 2021, the business angel-funded company completed its proof-of-concept phase with US$1 million in funding for an independent feature film currently in post-production.
The platform’s first project is titled “The Comeback Trail”. It will star Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones. The film is scheduled for release in the USA in November 2022.
