• Pluto TV

  Led · Equity · Oct 2014

  Pluto TV operates a free, advertising-supported streaming service featuring over 100 live channels and on-demand content. The service has partnerships with TV networks, movie studios, publishers and digital media companies, and announced more than 40 content deals in the year cited. Pluto TV is available online, on mobile devices and a range of living-room platforms including Samsung Smart TVs, Roku, Apple TV, PlayStation and Xbox. It reaches about 6 million active viewers per month and generates revenue through advertising. The company has been expanding content and distribution, previously using a $30M Series B to help fuel European expansion. Management has emphasized strategic partnerships with platform owners such as Samsung while continuing to grow its content and distribution footprint. Pluto TV replicates a linear TV experience online by providing a TV‑guide‑like interface that lets users tune into hundreds of channels rather than offering on‑demand catalogs. The service targets cord cutters and aggregates content through more than 75 partnerships with networks, studios, publishers and digital media companies including Sky, NBC, A&E, CBSi, Bloomberg and Paramount. It has distribution deals and preinstalls (such as on Xiaomi Mi Box) and is available on Vizio Cast, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and PlayStation 3/4. Pluto TV acquired Berlin‑based Quazer to establish an immediate presence in Germany and now has a team of about 50. The company reports over 5 million monthly active users, up from 500,000 in Q1 2015, and generates revenue through advertising sold via content and device partners and programmatic channels; monetization began less than a year ago and executives declined to disclose detailed financials. It plans to use new funding to invest in product, content and marketing and to expand further into Europe with the goal of becoming a global destination for free television. Pluto TV operates a free, ad-supported video platform that aggregates online and traditional content into themed, 24/7 channels. The service organizes content into categories such as music, sports, news, entertainment, comedy, lifestyle, tech, art & culture, education and kids. The platform features over 100 channels available for free on any device and is accessible via iOS and Android apps, web, and connected-TV options including Amazon Fire TV, Google Nexus Player & Chromecast and Apple AirPlay. Led by co-founder and CEO Tom Ryan, Pluto TV aims to broaden its content offering and expand availability across web, mobile and connected TVs. The company announced it will use the new funding to continue growing the platform and increase distribution and content breadth. Pluto.TV is an online television platform that aggregates web video and programs it into themed TV channels. Led by CEO Tom Ryan and based in Los Angeles, CA, the company combines technology, data and a team of specialist editors to build channels spanning music, news, sports, comedy, entertainment and niche interests. The service is available in the U.S. across iOS, Android, Google Chromecast, Amazon Kindle Fire, Fire TV and the web. Pluto.TV raised $500K in funding from BSkyB (BSY). The investment is intended to give Sky insight into emerging content trends while allowing Pluto.TV to leverage Sky’s experience in packaging and promoting content.

• Sharethrough

  Led · Equity · Sep 2014

  Sharethrough operates a marketplace and the Sharethrough for Publishers (SFP) software platform that enables brands and media companies to create, manage and monetize in-feed advertising across connected devices. The company’s platform is used to drive engagement for original brand content on publishers’ websites. Led by CEO Dan Greenberg, Sharethrough has been adopted by over 300 premium publishers, including Men’s Health, Gannett, Forbes, Time Inc. and Business Insider. In the past year it opened offices in London and acquired the UK content marketing company VAN. The company says it will use the new funding to accelerate global expansion and product development and is actively hiring. The product focus and recent partnerships indicate a push to scale publisher adoption and international presence. Sharethrough operates a native advertising exchange focused on in-feed and in-stream ad formats and distribution of branded content. The company evolved from an earlier focus on video ads to support multiple formats via its Sharethrough Advertising Exchange. Its network includes publishers such as People, Forbes, and Popular Mechanics, and comScore reports the Sharethrough network reaches 227 million unique visitors monthly, including 119 million on mobile. Sharethrough positions itself as the largest native ad platform and emphasizes promoting meaningful brand content. The company announced a $17 million financing (see deal details) and says it will continue technology development, pursue international expansion, and hire additional engineers and sales and bring STR software to more publishers. Dan Greenberg is founder and CEO and the company’s leadership has been active in promoting native advertising. Sharethrough builds native video advertising products that are customized to a publisher’s website and designed to feel like an organic part of content. The company launched the Sharethrough Sponsored Videos platform to standardize and scale native video ad deployment for a large number of publishers and advertisers. CEO Dan Greenberg framed the company’s strategy as aggressively doubling or tripling down on native video advertising. Sharethrough reports its platform reaches 105 million people in the United States and distributes native ads for 50% of the top 100 brands and more than 85% of the top U.S. media agencies. The company says revenue is up 87% year‑over‑year. As part of its growth push, Sharethrough has added senior hires including Chief Revenue Officer Mike Gaffney and VP of Operations James Navin. Sharethrough operates a social video ad network that helps agencies and marketers distribute brand video advertisements through social ad formats. Its ad unit allows viewers to tweet videos and share content on Facebook directly from within the ad. The company provides clients with metrics and data on how each video advertisement performs. Sharethrough has run more than 200 campaigns on publisher sites, including Reddit, for brands such as Sony, Xbox, GM, Activision, Nestle and LEGO. On the financing side, Sharethrough raised $5 million in a Series A led by North Bridge Venture Partners and Floodgate, following a prior $1 million angel round from Ron Conway, Mike Maples, Baseline Ventures and others. The company competes with players like Tremor Media, Brightroll and YuMe.

• Jaunt

  Participated · Series B · Aug 2014

  Jaunt provides an end-to-end solution for creating and distributing premium live-action cinematic virtual reality, including professional-grade camera hardware, software, and production tools. The company recently announced its 5th generation patent-pending camera system, Jaunt ONE, and operates a studio arm, Jaunt Studios, focused on live-action VR. Jaunt plans to scale up VR production and expand delivery across mobile devices and VR hardware while significantly growing teams in its Palo Alto headquarters and new Los Angeles studio. The company works with brands and creative partners such as The North Face, Rebecca Minkoff, Condé Nast and ABC News to produce branded and original VR content. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Palo Alto with a presence in Los Angeles, Jaunt positions itself as a leading, well-capitalized player in cinematic VR. Jaunt builds a full-stack hardware and software platform for cinematic virtual reality, using proprietary algorithms and computational photography to produce seamless omnidirectional 3D experiences. The company develops hardware, software, tools, and applications that integrate with existing production workflows to enable immersive cinematic VR. Since launching earlier this year, Jaunt is in production on a wide range of cinematic VR experiences for creators across Hollywood, travel, sports, and live events. The company plans to use new funding to scale its technology and meet growing demand from content creators and deliver VR experiences to mass audiences. Jaunt announced a $27.8 million Series B and has raised more than $34 million in total to date. The company is supported by advisors from Amazon, IMAX, film and academia and is based in Palo Alto, Calif. Jaunt develops hardware and software tools around computational photography to enable filmmakers to produce cinematic experiences for VR headsets. The company built a special spherical camera with 32 lenses and complementary post-production, editing and rendering software to recompose multi-lens video for headsets like the Oculus Rift. Jaunt positions itself as a studio offering end-to-end VR production solutions and says it has no immediate plans to sell its hardware or software. The team previously sold Ellerdale to Flipboard and has assembled advisers including Peter Gotcher, Stuart Murphy, Babak Parviz and Brad Wechsler. Jaunt is Palo Alto–based and has raised $6.8 million in funding from investors including Redpoint Ventures, Peter Gotcher, Blake Krikorian, SV Angel and British Sky Broadcasting. The company is targeting filmmakers and Hollywood creatives to produce immersive, film-like VR content as consumer VR platforms gain attention. Jaunt is an early-stage Palo Alto startup that captures and displays 360-degree video and immersive content. Its technology, per the company LinkedIn, combines computational photography, statistical algorithms, massively parallel processing, cutting-edge hardware and virtual reality. The company’s placeholder site currently offers only a "stayed tune" message while it builds out its engineering team. Jaunt’s leadership includes CEO Jens Christensen, CTO Arthur van Hoff and VP of engineering Tom Annau, all with notable prior roles at Flipboard and Google. The startup has secured strategic industry interest as part of a partnership with BSkyB, which the broadcaster says will give it additional insight into developments in the field. No revenue or user metrics are disclosed in the article.

• Roku

  Participated · Series F · May 2013

  Roku provides a TV streaming platform built on its proprietary Roku OS that allows developers to release channels and content worldwide, delivered to millions of devices including the company’s players. It is distributed through streaming players and via licensing arrangements with global TV OEMs and pay TV operators. The company generates revenue from retail sales of streaming players, licensing arrangements with TV OEMs and pay TV operators, and from content consumption, promotion and advertising sales on the platform. A regulatory filing with the SEC disclosed that Roku raised $45.5M in funding. The round saw participation from 14 unnamed backers. Roku is led by CEO Anthony Wood. Roku develops a streaming software platform and sells consumer streaming players (including the Roku 3 and Roku Streaming Stick) to deliver video, music and casual games to TVs. The company is broadening distribution by working with roughly two dozen OEMs producing more than 3.5 million Roku Ready devices, predominantly TVs, and plans to expand access points to its platform in the coming months. Roku has sold more than 5 million streaming players in the U.S. and its players are also available in Canada, the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland. In 2012 Roku streamed more than one billion hours of video and music. The new funding is intended to ready the company for growth around its streaming software and services businesses. Roku is privately held, was founded by Anthony Wood, and is headquartered in Saratoga, Calif. Roku operates a streaming platform and a line of streaming players that deliver video, music and casual games to televisions. The company launched the first player to stream Netflix to the TV in 2008 and today streams more than 500 entertainment channels to millions of customers. Roku streaming players are sold in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and the Republic of Ireland. Roku plans to expand its platform beyond players with the upcoming Roku Streaming Stick and by extending into Smart TVs and other TV-connected devices. The company said it will use new capital to build brand awareness through advertising, develop new international markets, and increase engineering and production to support sales growth of both hardware and digital media services. Roku also intends to grow digital service offerings including advertising, games, transactional and pay-per-view video and content packages. Roku produces consumer streaming devices that deliver web video and apps to televisions; its device lineup centers on Netflix’s app and also supports Hulu. Weeks before this raise the company released the Roku 2 XS, which adds games and motion controllers (Angry Birds was promoted as a flagship title) and retails for $100. The company is branching beyond pure streaming into gaming and interactive features while remaining competitive on price with products like Apple TV. Roku spun off from Netflix three years earlier and was founded by Anthony Wood, who previously founded BrightSign and invented the DVR. Whether Roku will integrate BrightSign’s digital-signage technology with its streaming products remains unclear. Financially, Roku has sold $8.0 million in this funding round and is seeking an additional $750,000.

No current team members are available.