Earlier this week, VShojo, the VTuber talent agency that claims to put “talent first,” came under fire as its biggest talent, Ironmouse, alleged that the company had failed to pay her a “significant sum” of money, as well as failing to donate more than $515,000 that she had raised for the Immune Deficiency Foundation. Now, after a mass exodus of its talent that saw VShojo without a single remaining VTuber on its books, the CEO has admitted to spending those funds to try to keep the company afloat.
In a statement posted to the VShojo X account on July 24, CEO Justin Ignacio has admitted that he has “mismanaged the company into the situation you’re all witnessing.” Ignacio goes on to confirm that VShojo has been facing financial difficulties in recent months, and that despite raising “around $11 million” to pursue a “talent-first” approach, the company eventually ran out of money. Ignacio says that “some of the money was raised in connection with talent activity,” and claims that he later learned that it was intended for a charitable initiative. He continues, “We were working hard to raise additional investment capital to cover our costs, and I firmly believed, based on the information available to us, that we would be able to do so and cover all our expenses. We were unsuccessful in our fundraising efforts.”
However, users on X have pointed out several instances where Ignacio acknowledged Ironmouse’s charity streams at the time, and allege that he did not “later learn” this fact at all, but was aware for the duration of VShojo’s struggles. As a response to the situation, Twitch has removed the “GunRun” global emote that was dedicated to Ignacio.
As Ignacio confirmed that “VShojo is shutting down,” some former talents are taking this as a sign that the nondisclosure agreements that they signed are no longer valid. Several VTubers have spoken out and alleged that the company had “predatory contracts,” and claiming that they are owed merch and sponsorship funds from “years ago.”
In line with discovering that the funds she raised had not been donated to the Immune Deficiency Foundation, Ironmouse launched her own Tiltify campaign to raise money for the charity. At the time of writing, it has surpassed $1.25 million raised in just three days.
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