• Vertical Mass

  Participated · Series A · Oct 2016

  Vertical Mass is a data management platform (DMP) and marketplace built specifically for the music, entertainment, and sports industries. Its platform lets users collect and store data on fans across social media, websites, mobile apps, ecommerce and content streaming services, and to understand and reach them via automatic advertising or content wherever they browse the web. The company serves over 300 customers — including Grammy winners, Super Bowl half-time acts, actors, touring artists, Facebook pages and sports teams — whose combined audience exceeds 3.2 billion fans. Vertical Mass plans to use the Series A proceeds to grow engineering and data science teams, scale business development and sales, and to launch an enterprise marketing operating system tailored to its customer categories. It is led by CEO Mark Shedletsky and has offices in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. The company secured $5M in Series A financing announced October 18, 2016.

• StudySoup

  Participated · Seed · Aug 2016

  StudySoup operates an online peer-to-peer marketplace that lets students purchase and sell class notes and study guides, with vetted “Elite Notetakers” supplying structured content. Elite Notetakers apply, complete training, and can earn roughly $400–$500 per course by posting about 15 pieces of content; the company retains about 30% of that revenue. Students subscribe to access notes, with subscription prices ranging from $11 to $30 per month. The platform reports roughly 2,000 Elite Notetakers, presence at 150 schools, and more than 500,000 students, about 20% of whom are graduate students. StudySoup plans to expand across additional college campuses and add new products for users, including a flash-card study tool currently in beta. The company will use the new funding to hire additional engineers and invest in marketing and advertising to reach students nationwide.

• LawnGuru

  Participated · Seed · Jul 2016

  LawnGuru operates an on-demand marketplace, connecting consumers with local lawn mowing and snow removal providers via web and mobile apps. The company plans to use its new funding to support national growth and to continue research and development of its technology. LawnGuru reports revenue growth of over 1,100% since 2015. It moved its headquarters to downtown Ann Arbor in April and will release an all-new Android version of its app this summer. To accommodate growth it is hiring for sales, customer service, and marketing roles. Founders Brandon Bertrang and Skye Durrant built a multi-million dollar lawn and landscape business prior to launching the platform after participating in a Mountain View accelerator and 500 Startups.

• Spaces

  Participated · Equity · May 2016

  Spaces builds virtual-reality and mixed-reality parks and attractions for location-based entertainment. Launched in 2016, the company was co-founded by CEO Shiraz Akmal and CTO Brad Herman. The business recently raised an additional $6.5M in funding to support its growth. In conjunction with the financing, Spaces entered into a $30M theme-park joint venture with Songcheng, one of the world’s largest theme-park operators. The partnership leverages Songcheng’s scale (reported attendance of more than 23 million visitors in 2015, per the Themed Entertainment Association) to expand Spaces’ VR-enabled attractions. The company also established a board of directors with new additions from DreamWorks Animation, Comcast Ventures and Songcheng Technology. SPACES enables companies and brands to create virtual and mixed reality (VR and MxR) experiences across consumer and enterprise platforms. The team, led by co‑founders and executives Shiraz Akmal (CEO) and Brad Herman (CTO), includes veterans who helped build DreamWorks Animation’s VR experiences. SPACES is developing projects for a range of platforms including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Microsoft HoloLens, Samsung Gear VR, PlayStation VR and Google Cardboard. The company is already working with clients such as Microsoft, NBCUniversal, Big Blue Bubble and The Hettema Group to produce VR and MxR content. SPACES has assembled a global advisory board with industry figures including Dan Offner, Keith Boesky and actor/entrepreneur Rana Daggubati. The company announced $3 million in initial funding to support its operations and project development.

• Bringhub

  Participated · Seed · Apr 2015

  Bringhub provides a platform that adds a shopping layer to editorial and advertising content so readers can buy products without leaving the article or ad. The product supports shopping from multiple stores in a single checkout and supplies publishers and retailers with data on user shopping habits. The company says it has partnered with more than 100 publishers, including NBC’s Today, InStyle and AOL, and works with over 500 retailers. Bringhub positions its tools as a way for content producers and marketers to monetize content at scale. The startup announced a strategic investment from Integrated Asset Management Limited, which the company and the investor frame as a move to accelerate e-commerce monetization and analytics capabilities. Bringhub’s platform focus and existing publisher/retailer footprint suggest the company is aiming to expand adoption and revenue-generation opportunities for publishers and brands. Bringhub is a Los Angeles, CA-based e-commerce platform that enables online shoppers to purchase goods and services they discover in online content through a checkout that lives directly in the publisher’s site. The company was co-founded in 2014 by Dominik Pantelides (CEO), Brian Marvin (COO) and Albert Khasky (CTO). Bringhub is to launch with $1.8M in seed funding. Backers include Bill Budinger, Capital Union Investments Hong Kong, BAM Ventures, Canyon Creek Capital, Rachel Zoe Ventures, and others. The solution is slated to launch at the end of April via a select group of premier publishers and top-tier retailers. The article does not report any operating metrics such as revenue or user counts.

No current team members are available.