Participated · Equity · Oct 2018

Quibi is a subscription streaming service built around short-form, mobile-first original programming with episodes no longer than 10 minutes. It plans to offer 175 shows and roughly 8,500 episodes in its first year, with 50 shows available at launch and new episodes released daily. The app promotes mobile-specific features such as TurnStyle viewing and includes standard navigation tabs (For You, Search, Following, Downloads). Quibi does not have a back catalog and is relying on a slate of marquee talent and wholly original content to attract subscribers. Financially, the company has secured substantial backing and has sold out an initial $150 million of advertising inventory for its first year. To date the company has raised $1.75 billion, including a recently closed $400 million round. Quibi (short for 'quick bites') is a short-form video service designed specifically for mobile devices and built around original, mobile-first programming. The service plans to launch next year and will operate on a two-tier subscription model similar to Hulu. Quibi is commissioning projects from filmmakers including Guillermo del Toro, Antoine Fuqua, Sam Raimi, producer Jason Blum, and Van Toffler, with some projects described as a modern zombie story, a modern Dog Day Afternoon, and Wolves and Villagers compared to Fatal Attraction. Jeffrey Katzenberg has raised $1 billion for the company from a group of media and financial investors. Katzenberg hired Meg Whitman as Quibi's CEO in January, and the company has been hiring aggressively, including former Instagram product manager Blake Barnes and former Hulu VP of engineering Rob Post. The effort is positioned to compete with major players such as Instagram, Netflix and Snap.

Led · Series C · Sep 2018

Caffeine is a Redwood City, Calif.-based live broadcasting platform that creates and distributes live, interactive entertainment. Led by founder and CEO Ben Keighran, the company launched out of beta last November and added two million new registered users over the last year. Streams on the platform typically run sub-190 milliseconds and are often 15 seconds to a full minute faster than other streaming platforms. Caffeine enforces a zero-tolerance policy for bullying, hate speech and racism using automated filtering, human moderators and community self-regulation. The company has secured exclusive and branded partnerships, including an exclusive collaboration with Drake that brought Ultimate Rap League to the platform and streams of Fox Sports content. It intends to use new funding to accelerate growth and the onboarding of entertainers. Caffeine is a social livestreaming platform founded in San Francisco in 2016 that enables users to broadcast esports, video gaming, entertainment and other creative live content. The platform supports social features such as watching movies and TV virtually with friends and allows broadcasters to stream varied content, from games to live music or personal performances. Caffeine remains in pre-release beta with no official launch date provided. Prior investors Andreessen Horowitz and Greylock Partners previously invested $46 million across two rounds. Most recently the company raised more than $100 million in a round led by 21st Century Fox, with Fox itself investing $100 million. The cash will fund Caffeine Studios, a joint venture with Fox Sports to produce exclusive live entertainment including esports, gaming and sports, and Caffeine has also signed a content deal with Live Nation to bring concerts to the platform. Caffeine offers a suite of streaming products including a free 10 MB Windows app that enables one-click game streaming, web-browser streaming, and iPhone streaming. The company built its own real-time distribution video network leveraging WebRTC to deliver zero-delay streams and custom technology that detects game launches and injects viewer comments as an overlay. Its UX emphasizes people-centric social features—followed streams, friend-prioritized comments, community-endorsed comments, and customizable comment bubbles—aimed at casual streamers rather than top competitive broadcasters. Caffeine intends to add monetization tools and the option to delay streams later in the year to attract more serious creators. The team includes ex-Apple engineers and designers and other hires from Valve, Oculus, Netflix, Amazon, and Oracle, and the company says its headcount is over 20 (under 50). Caffeine positions itself against Twitch and YouTube Gaming by focusing on simplicity, friendliness, and a moderated community experience.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2018

NewTV is developing mobile‑first video content that applies Hollywood production values to bite‑sized formats of 10 minutes or less. The company says it will pair that content approach with custom‑designed technology built specifically for mobile. NewTV is being incubated by Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, and Meg Whitman was named CEO in January. Details about distribution strategy remain unclear — the company may own and distribute content, operate a standalone service, or pursue a hybrid approach. The market opportunity is uncertain in light of established short‑form platforms like YouTube and growing streaming services such as Amazon, Netflix and Hulu. Financially, NewTV has been pursuing large external funding, per press reports cited in the article.

Participated · Series D · Apr 2018

fuboTV is a streaming TV service built around live sports, offering access to NBA, NHL, UFC and extensive international soccer coverage (Bundesliga, EPL, La Liga, Liga MX, MLS, World Cup qualifiers, UEFA Champions League). The service offers a Fubo Premier package (70+ channels) priced at $19.99 for the first month and $44.99 thereafter, with add-ons for extra sports, international packages, DVR and additional streams. It claims over 30,000 sporting events per year and a 10,000+ title VOD library, and had over 100,000 paid subscribers as of September 2017 with continued double-digit growth. fuboTV has broadened beyond pure sports by adding entertainment networks (including channels tied to strategic investors) and expanded broadcast affiliates (Fox in 87% of U.S. households; NBC and CBS in 72% and 68%; 257 local affiliates total). The company generates revenue from subscriptions and advertising, with advertising representing a low single-digit percentage of revenue but growing rapidly after launching server-side ad insertion; management expects ad revenue per subscriber above Spotify's published benchmark. fuboTV is forecasting a revenue run rate of over $100 million within a year and plans to use new capital to double office space and its engineering and product teams, open a second headquarters, develop new products and content offerings, and increase marketing. FuboTV is a streaming TV service that targets sports fans by offering a lineup of sports-focused channels and live sports coverage. The company initially focused on soccer but has expanded into dozens of sports channels through deals with Fox and NBC Universal. It distributes apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku. FuboTV replaced a $10/month soccer skinny bundle with a larger $35 package of more than 55 channels. Before discontinuing the smaller bundle, the company had signed up more than 75,000 subscribers. Financially, FuboTV has raised a total of $75 million since being founded in 2014. The company plans to use new funding to increase marketing spend and develop new products specifically for people watching sports matches and related content. fuboTV offers a sports-first over-the-top bundle of linear sports and entertainment channels, with a strong emphasis on live soccer and multilingual content (English, Spanish and Portuguese). The service has distribution deals with rights holders including Univision Networks, beIN SPORTS, GolTV and Benfica TV, and has recently added entertainment networks such as El Rey Network, Pivot and REVOLT. Launched in January 2015, fuboTV has quickly become the second-largest virtual MVPD in the U.S. and the top provider of live streaming soccer, available across web, mobile and major streaming devices. The company reports more than 40,000 subscribers, a customer base concentrated in millennial males and roughly 30% Latin American. Financially, fuboTV has raised a total of $20.6 million to date, including a $4 million Series A in August 2015 and the $15 million Series B announced here. The Series B proceeds are earmarked to grow the sports-first offering, develop new features, market the service to increase subscribers, and to deepen collaboration with strategic investors. fuboTV is a cloud-based over-the-top (OTT) TV service dedicated to bundling live soccer matches, cable networks, 24-hour club channels, international blocks, series and news into a single subscription platform. Launched in January 2015, the service is available on desktop and devices including Amazon Fire TV, Android, Chromecast, iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire and Roku. The company carries more than half of the major international soccer leagues through carriage agreements with networks such as beIN Sports, GoITV and Benfica TV, and maintains club partnerships with AJAX Amsterdam, Borussia Dortmund and Everton. fuboTV says it has secured and monetized a substantial amount of live soccer programming and is targeting expanded TV network carriage, platform feature enhancements and content marketing. Financially, the company has raised a total of $5.6 million to date, including the announced Series A. Management plans to use new capital to grow premium sports content, build out technical enhancements to its OTT multi-channel distribution platform and hire key personnel. fuboTV is a cloud-based TV service dedicated to sports that bundles live sports cable networks, 24-hour club channels, international blocks, TV series and news into a single platform for soccer fans. The company has launched an OTT streaming service priced at $6.99/month. The service is available on Roku, Samsung TV, iOS/Android, Amazon Fire TV and via its website. fuboTV closed a $1.6M round of funding to further develop its delivery and sports subscription platform. The article notes the backers remained undisclosed. The piece does not specify the financing instrument beyond a funding round.

Participated · Series B · Dec 2017

Dreamscape delivers location-based VR “adventures” across four sites worldwide using proprietary full-body tracking and cinematic storytelling to create untethered, participatory experiences. Its ADEPT (Avatar Driven Educational and Practical Training) platform and rendering/tracking tech aim to reproduce real-world feel for both entertainment and training. Dreamscape has partnered with Arizona State University on Dreamscape Learn to bring avatar-based AR/VR to on-campus and online courses, including an immersive biology curriculum with a 16x16-foot pod planned for 2021. The company’s founders include former DreamWorks Motion Pictures head Walter Parkes and Disney Imagineering alum Bruce Vaughn. Dreamscape’s investor base includes entertainment names such as WarnerMedia, Viacom, Disney, AMC, IMAX, Steven Spielberg, and Hans Zimmer. Verizon Ventures has taken an equity stake and will collaborate on 5G- and mobile edge compute–powered learning and training applications; financial terms were not disclosed. Dreamscape Immersive is a Los Angeles-based location-based virtual reality company that offers untethered VR experiences using body-mapping technology created by Swiss research institute Artanim. Founded in January 2017 by co-chairmen Walter Parkes and Kevin Wall alongside CEO Bruce Vaughn and COO Aaron Grosky, the company builds cinematic, interactive worlds for participants to enter and explore. Its flagship location was slated to open to the public at Westfield Century City Mall in Los Angeles in 2018. Dreamscape has a strategic partnership with AMC Entertainment, with AMC committed to open and operate up to six Dreamscape VR centers within AMC theatres and at standalone locations in North America and the U.K. The company intends to use new funding to scale operations, build a marquee slate of content, and further global expansion into new territories. Financially, Dreamscape closed a $30M Series B financing to support those plans. Dreamscape Immersive is a Los Angeles-based developer of immersive virtual reality entertainment experiences. It builds location-based VR entertainment offerings intended for public entertainment centers. The company said it plans to open a flagship "VR Multiplex" at the Westfield Century City Mall in fall of this year. Dreamscape raised a Series A financing; the company did not publicly disclose the round size, though a regulatory filing indicates around $11.36M. The Series A was led by Bold Capital Partners and included Warner Bros., 21st Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), IMAX Corporation, Westfield Corporation, and Steven Spielberg. Founders and co-chairmen are Walter Parkes and Kevin Wall, and Bruce Vaughn, formerly of Disney Imagineering, was named CEO.