PechaKucha

What PechaKucha does

PechaKucha is a social storytelling platform built around a signature 20x20 presentation format, in which presenters share exactly 20 slides at 20 seconds per slide. The company operates a global ecosystem that combines a digital presentation creation and sharing platform with a distributed network of in-person PechaKucha Night events organized by local volunteers across cities worldwide. Its product portfolio includes the core PechaKucha 20x20 platform, PechaKucha Night events, a "PechaKucha of the Day" curated feature, presentation and event creation tools, community management tools, NFT minting for presentations, school programs, a business partnership program, and an Annual Membership offering. A premium PK Pro subscription tier, billed monthly, represents the company's primary formalized recurring revenue stream alongside annual membership support, while the broader business remains heavily community-led with no disclosed enterprise contract revenue. The company was founded in Tokyo in 2003 (with a separate firmographic record indicating 2018 for the current operating entity) and now operates with a dual headquarters in Chicago and Tokyo, led by co-founder and CEO Sean Smyth alongside founders Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein, with a reported headcount of 1-10 employees.

Name

PechaKucha

Legal name

PechaKucha

Website

https://pechakucha.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

PechaKucha operates a global social storytelling platform built around the 20x20 presentation format, serving individual creators, community organizers, schools, and businesses through its website, live PechaKucha Night events, subscription tiers, and NFT minting tools.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Presentation Software

NAICS

Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (516210), Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (51621), Media Streaming Distribution Services, Social Networks, and Other Media Networks and Content Providers (5162)

SIC

Periodicals: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2721)

akta.pro primary industry

Social Q&A & Knowledge Communities (BPAMABAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

K–12 Instructional Video & Multimedia (EDAGALAA), Short-Form Video for Education & Microlearning Platforms (MPACAHAK)

Keywords

• Presentation software
• Social storytelling
• Community platform
• Live event platform
• Creator tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Seed Funding: PechaKucha raised $2.7 million in seed funding to expand product features, social connectivity, and community growth.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

PechaKucha operates a social storytelling platform built around its proprietary 20x20 presentation format (20 slides, 20 seconds each). Users create and share presentations through the website and mobile apps, host and join PechaKucha Night community events worldwide, manage local creative communities, and mint presentations as NFTs. The company monetizes via premium subscriptions (PK Pro) and annual memberships.

Product overview

PechaKucha is a social storytelling platform built around its signature 20x20 presentation format (20 slides, 20 seconds each). The platform operates as a unified ecosystem comprising the core PechaKucha 20x20 presentation platform, PechaKucha Night Events for in-person community gatherings, and various supporting tools including Create Presentation, Create Event, Create Community, and Create NFT. The product portfolio includes PK Pro as a premium subscription tier, School Programs for educational use, Business Partnership Program for corporate applications, and Annual Membership for community support. The platform facilitates both digital content sharing and in-person community events, connecting storytellers and audiences globally.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• PechaKucha Night: Regular community event format where presenters share 20x20 presentations in cities worldwide
• PechaKucha of the Day
• PK Pro

Products and services

• PechaKucha 20x20 Platform The core presentation format and platform allowing users to discover, create, and share 20x20 slide presentations (20 slides, 20 seconds each) for storytelling and idea sharing. Targeted at individual creators, professionals, educators, and community organizers worldwide.
• PechaKucha Night Events In-person community events where presenters share their stories and ideas using the PechaKucha 20x20 format in local venues worldwide. Organized by local volunteer city leads and the central PechaKucha team.
• PK Pro Premium monthly subscription tier offering advanced features and capabilities for creators and power users of the PechaKucha platform.
• Annual Membership Annual subscription membership providing ongoing support and enhanced features for dedicated PechaKucha users and community organizers.
• Create NFT NFT creation tool allowing users to mint their PechaKucha presentations as non-fungible tokens for digital ownership and monetization of creative work.
• School Programs Educational initiative enabling schools to use PechaKucha as a teaching and presentation tool for student presentations, storytelling projects, and faculty showcases.
• Business Partnership Program Program enabling businesses to leverage PechaKucha for internal presentations, team building, training, and corporate events.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Behance: Behance (owned by Adobe) is an online community for showcasing and discovering creative work, with overlap to PechaKucha's individual-creator and creative-community use cases. It is comparable on the social/community side of storytelling but is broader in creative disciplines.
• Gamma: Gamma is an AI-assisted presentation and content creation platform that turns prompts into slide-based stories. It is an emerging player in the same creation-and-sharing category as PechaKucha, with a comparable positioning around faster, more engaging alternatives to traditional slide decks.

Direct peers

• Issuu: Issuu is a digital publishing platform that turns documents and presentations into discoverable, shareable flipbooks. It is comparable to PechaKucha as a self-serve platform that helps creators publish and distribute visual content to global audiences.
• SlideShare: SlideShare (owned by Scribd/formerly LinkedIn) is a web-based platform for uploading, sharing, and discovering presentations. It overlaps with PechaKucha on the "host a presentation, build an audience" workflow and represents the same upload-and-browse content discovery use case.
• Prezi: Prezi is a presentation software platform focused on non-linear, visually-driven storytelling. It competes most directly with PechaKucha on the core creation-and-sharing workflow and on a positioning built around more engaging alternatives to PowerPoint-style slides.

Others

• Hopin: Hopin is an events platform supporting virtual and hybrid community events. It is adjacent to PechaKucha on the events-and-community layer and is relevant to PechaKucha's business and partnership program use cases for corporate events.
• Meetup: Meetup is a platform for finding and building local community groups and in-person events. It is comparable to PechaKucha on the local-community, organizer-led, in-person-events model that underpins the PechaKucha Night network.
• Eventbrite: Eventbrite is a self-service ticketing and event management platform widely used by community organizers. It is adjacent to PechaKucha because both depend on organizer-led community events, though Eventbrite focuses on ticketing infrastructure rather than presentation content.

Broad incumbents

• TED: TED operates a global, community-driven talks platform with a constrained presentation format (typically under 18 minutes). It is a broader incumbent that overlaps with PechaKucha on the idea-sharing, community-events, and short-format storytelling proposition, but at a much larger scale.
• Canva: Canva is a mass-market design and presentation platform used by individuals, schools, and businesses worldwide. It overlaps with PechaKucha on presentation creation and on the schools/business segments, but as a broad incumbent with vastly more capital and a much wider product surface.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/pechakucha
• GitHubgithub.com/pechakucha
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/pechakucha
• Facebookfacebook.com/PechaKuchaGlobal
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pechakucha
• Instagraminstagram.com/pechakucha

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about PechaKucha