Streamfog transforms brand integrations into visual entertainment through augmented reality effects that appear directly in livestreams when viewers subscribe or engage. Founded in March 2023, the Austin-based startup has already executed AR campaigns for Uber Eats, Disney+, and Ally Bank by incorporating interactive elements, such as animated food deliveries and branded effects that activate during streams.

“The whole point of interactivity is that if someone follows or subscribes, they have an effect,” explains Kevin Bondzio, founder and CEO of StreamFog. “If the viewer can change something in your camera, almost in your reality, that’s as close as you can get between the viewer and the streamer.”

Streamfog serves two primary markets: Twitch streamers seeking to differentiate themselves, and brands looking for non-disruptive ways to integrate promotions into creator content. 

Kevin established the company after identifying that traditional brand integrations often feel forced or disruptive, creating a negative experience for viewers who “are here for the creator,” not the advertisement. In turn, creators struggle to effectively monetize their content

“As the streamer space got competitive, so has the influencer marketing space—if you want to succeed, you need to stand out in some way or another,” the German-born software engineer notes.

According to Stream Hatchet data, livestreaming viewership reached 32.5 billion hours watched in 2024, up 12% from 2023’s 28.9 billion hours and 105% from 2019’s pre-pandemic figure of 15.8 billion hours.

Reframing the Revenue Model

In developing Streamfog’s business approach, Kevin made a key decision that addresses another central tension in the creator tools space.

“Many streamers might say, ‘Hey, I’m not willing to pay $10 per month for that,'” Kevin explains. “But if that increases their revenue by 10%, that’s a very important ROI.”

The solution? Making Streamfog completely free for creators while generating revenue through brand partnerships.

“StreamFog is and will be for free,” Kevin states. “We are more interested in giving viewers and streamers a way to monetize their stream on top of that, where we can get a cut from it.”

This approach acknowledges the reality that in a market where foundational tools like OBS and Streamlabs are free, creators have developed resistance to paid services. Instead of fighting this dynamic, Streamfog embraces it, aligning their business success directly with creator monetization.

Case Studies and Engagement Metrics: Measuring AR Brand Activations

Streamfog has partnered with major brands, including Uber Eats, Ally Bank, and Disney+, to create immersive AR campaigns that demonstrate their approach in action. The company tracks both quantitative and qualitative indicators of success from these collaborations.

The company offers two primary campaign models. First, targeted influencer marketing campaigns that pair specific brands with a small number of larger creators. For Uber Eats, Streamfog developed effects where “when they ordered the food, they clicked the button, and bags were flying down through the air. When the food arrived, a backpack came in, a doorbell rang, and the food flew out, and sushi was flying to the room.”

Second, Streamfog facilitates affiliate marketing campaigns. Instead of merely displaying “a small logo under the camera,” these campaigns include visual elements like “fruits flying through the screen for a second, showing it, and really make it visually appealing.”

Measuring campaign effectiveness combines traditional metrics with more subjective evaluations. “Part of that is measurable. Part of that is hard to measure,” Kevin acknowledges. “The hard to measure part is really if I always watch the streams, if we have a campaign, and if you see how much fun the creators have using those.”

The creator’s experience matters because, as Kevin explains, “We are humans, we’re social, like, social species. So if I’m having fun, enjoying myself, I would like to pick other people up.” Meanwhile, Streamfog tracks concrete indicators during effect activations: “You see engagement going up, people ask about the product, people have questions, people say, ‘Wow, this looked cool.'”

For brands, Streamfog enables them to stand out without creating viewer resentment. “You can do that by buying the biggest streamers and paying them a lot of money, or you can make the experience very special,” Kevin explains. “We can make it very seamless where it’s like you have a very cool animation that doesn’t disrupt the viewing experience.”

From Twitch to YouTube: Expanding the Approach

Streamfog initially focused on live streaming platforms, particularly Twitch, but is now expanding to recorded content on YouTube.

“So we’re now very focused on live streaming,” Kevin explains. “ But the same thing I said applies to YouTube and like record content similarly.”

Their recent YouTube campaign applies the same principles to recorded content, creating AR effects that allow creators to thank sponsors while being “very normal,” with the effects showcasing the product “in a very natural way.”

The Creator Growth Sweet Spot

While Streamfog serves creators of all sizes, its strategy has particularly resonated with creators in the growth phase—those with an average of 10 to 100 viewers who are actively working to expand their audience.

“The people that most interact with us on Discord, that have requests, that give feedback are the ones in this, like 10 to 100 viewers on average,” Kevin notes.

For these creators, the dual benefits of enhanced viewer engagement and new monetization opportunities are particularly valuable. As Kevin observes, “The streaming space experienced massive growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, but we’re now seeing viewership plateau. In this environment, growth requires attracting viewers through meaningful differentiation and methods to monetize their growing but not yet massive audiences.”

Technical Base Enabling Business Model

Streamfog’s monetization system relies on its technological foundation. The platform operates as what Kevin describes as a “thin layer on top of OBS”, using browser-based technology rather than traditional virtual camera approaches.

“We have a browser source that you add into OBS,” Kevin explains. “It’s your personal link with your settings. And that browser now shows your camera and adds all the magic to it.”

This browser-based approach offers greater efficiency than alternatives, as “browsers and all the technology around browsers is often tried to be. It needs to run on almost every machine.” This technical efficiency, Kevin adds, is key for implementing AR effects without creating latency issues that would detract from the streaming experience.

Monetization Without Compromise

Having joined Techstars, a global startup accelerator and venture capital firm, in 2024 and currently fundraising a pre-seed round, Streamfog is positioning itself to expand its approach to creator economy monetization.

As Kevin shares, the Techstars program provides his startup with resources, mentorship, and connections that can accelerate its development as it continues to raise funds.

Kevin’s vision, however, extends beyond solving individual brand campaigns to rethinking how creators and brands interact with audiences. “I want to go to a point where we don’t have to have this trade-off of ‘I either promote something and annoy the viewers or I don’t promote something,'” he explains. “I think we are going in a very good direction to solve that.”

The company’s long-term goal is to enable content creators to monetize their camera space as ad space, delivering stunning, non-intrusive marketing solutions for brands.

“We want to give people a way to better integrate content and brands or sponsorships into any type of streaming,” Kevin concludes.