Startup profile for Lowkey: latest funding, latest known valuation, total disclosed funding, investors, status, sources, and why the company is interesting. Part of the Venture Capital Tracker startup directory.
Venture Capital Tracker logo
Venture Capital Tracker

Startup profile · funding coverage

Lowkey funding, valuation and investors

Game clip capture and highlights for streamers—team acquired by Niantic in 2021.

Keep track of Lowkey

Save this profile to your VCT watchlist for a quick return.

View watchlist

Funding, valuation & investors

Answer-first snapshot

Latest funding

Series A

$7M · March 2021

Latest known valuation

Not publicly disclosed

Total disclosed equity funding

$7M

Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.

Current status

acquired

acquired · San Francisco, California

Investors in latest funding

Lead: Andreessen Horowitz

Latest tracked event: Acquired by Niantic (November 2021). It is shown separately because it is not counted as disclosed equity funding.

Sources: latest funding Last verified: 2026-07-25

Overview

Lowkey (lowkey.gg), founded by Jesse Zhang, built software for capturing, editing, and sharing gameplay highlights—helping streamers and esports teams produce short-form clips for TikTok, Discord, and social feeds. The Y Combinator Summer 2018 company pivoted from earlier tournament products to clip tooling. In March 2021, Lowkey raised a $7 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz with angels including Dylan Field (Figma) and Zach Perret (Plaid) per TechCrunch. In November 2021, Niantic acquired Lowkey and most of the team to improve social features in Pokémon GO and Lightship AR products per YC and GamesIndustry.biz.

Why Lowkey is interesting

YC S18 Lowkey pivoted from tournaments to auto-highlights for Twitch; a16z's $7M Series A preceded Niantic buying the team to bolt social video onto AR games.

Product & use cases

Lowkey's desktop and mobile apps captured gameplay footage, auto-suggested highlight moments, and exported vertical clips—used by top esports orgs including Cloud9 and TSM per a16z announcement.

  • Streamers clipping Twitch/YouTube footage for TikTok and Instagram
  • Esports teams publishing match highlights quickly
  • Mobile hub for discovering friends' gameplay moments

Key facts

  • Series A (Mar 2021): $7M led by a16z (TechCrunch)
  • Acquired Nov 2021 by Niantic (YC / TechCrunch)
  • Top esports teams Cloud9, TSM, 100 Thieves, Gen.G used product (a16z)
  • YC S18; pivoted from tournament platform Camelot

Funding history (newest first)

Acquired by Niantic

2021-11 Not disclosed

Source: https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/lowkey

Series A

2021-03 $7M

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/31/lowkey-raises-7-million-from-a16z-to-help-game-streamers-capitalize-on-short-form-video/

Investors in our directory

Funds linked from Lowkey's profile — open a fund page for stage focus and related deal articles.

Andreessen Horowitz

Competitive landscape

Edge: Cross-platform capture plus mobile-first vertical export before Twitch and Discord improved native clipping.

Gameplay clipping became a platform feature, compressing standalone tool value. Niantic acqui-hire bet on social video talent for AR games rather than scaling Lowkey as independent media network.

  • Twitch native clips incumbent

    Platform built clipping after Lowkey proved demand.

  • Medal.tv direct

    Gameplay capture and sharing for PC gamers.

  • Streamlabs / OBS plugins adjacent

    Broadcaster tooling; less mobile social focus.

Notable stories

  • CEO Jesse Zhang wrote much of v1 code after teaching himself programming at age 11 (a16z announcement).
  • Company pivoted from YC-era Camelot (paid Twitch challenges) to clip tooling (TechCrunch).
  • Zhang said joining Niantic aligned with building social layers spanning multiple games (Medium post).

Industries

Media & Entertainment Consumer Developer Tools

Related funding articles

Venture Capital Tracker pieces that cover Lowkey's financing or category context.

FAQs about Lowkey

Practical answers founders, operators, and investors typically search for.

Lowkey built software to capture, edit, and share gameplay highlights for streamers and esports teams.
Niantic acquired Lowkey in November 2021.
Andreessen Horowitz (/fund/andreessen-horowitz) led the $7M Series A in March 2021.
Yes—YC Summer 2018 batch.
Jesse Zhang founded Lowkey.
Lowkey offered cross-platform capture and mobile vertical editing before Twitch expanded native clipping.
$7M Series A publicly announced; acquisition terms undisclosed.
To enhance social and video features in AR games like Pokémon GO per Niantic blog.
Team joined Niantic; standalone product wind-down followed acquisition.
Cloud9, TSM, 100 Thieves, and Gen.G cited in a16z investment announcement.
Website All startups Funding news

By Venture Capital Tracker

Last updated:

Editorial note: AI tools assisted with research, structure, or drafting. Venture Capital Tracker retains human editorial responsibility for factual accuracy, relevance, and source quality before publication.