The Venture Codex

Participated · Series C · Jun 2012

Mobile Posse's core product is the First Feed™ Discovery Platform, which serves premium content when users unlock their phones, open mobile browsers, or swipe to the right. It offers three solutions—firstLook, firstPlace, and firstPage—that enable wireless carriers and OEMs to engage users in key moments and create new mobile-advertising revenue streams. The company focuses on eliminating swipes, taps, waits and other friction to streamline the mobile consumer experience. Mobile Posse is headquartered in Arlington, VA, and reports delivering nearly two billion frictionless content experiences every month. It plans to continue developing new products and services within the frictionless media space to drive subscriber value and advertising revenues. Prospect Capital provided capital to support this next phase of growth, with existing investors SoftBank Capital and Harbert Venture Partners participating. Mobile Posse provides mobile home screen messaging, CRM, advertising and consumer insights delivered directly to users' phone home screens. The platform powers graphical interactive messages, surveys and full-screen CRM messages for carriers and advertisers and is used by carriers including Verizon Wireless, MetroPCS, U.S. Cellular and Cricket. Consumers opt in to receive content such as weather, local gas prices and offers from national and local advertisers. The company reaches more than 15 million mobile consumers, about one third of whom are Android users, and reports click-through rates of 8–10% for advertising, 12–15% for content, and 27–30% for CRM messaging. Mobile Posse said it closed a $5 million Series C to build out its mobile home screen services. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in McLean, Virginia, the company also maintains offices in New York and San Francisco.

Led · Equity · Sep 2011

Automated Insights builds automation technology that generates news stories — described in the article as “robots” that will write earnings recaps. The AP is deploying the company’s system to produce 150–300 word stories recapping quarterly results. Using the technology the AP will cover roughly 4,400 companies each quarter instead of its usual ~300, and the service is intended to free journalists to focus on analysis rather than rote number-crunching. The rollout by the AP is scheduled to begin in July. The company recently closed a $5.5 million Series B, indicating outside investor interest in its product and commercial traction with major media partners. Automated Insights builds software that automatically turns raw data into narrative content and visualizations, producing headlines, summaries and long-form articles. Its output can be formatted and distributed via the web, mobile apps, and social media. The company originated from StatSheet and will retain the StatSheet brand for its sports offerings while expanding into other data‑intensive verticals such as finance, weather and real estate. It has applied its technology to Major League Baseball coverage and plans team-centric sites and mobile apps for all 32 NFL and 244 NCAA Division I college football teams. Since November the software has generated over 100,000 articles across NCAA basketball and MLB. The startup has reached this scale with a headcount of just 12 employees in under a year. StatSheet is a one‑person sports statistics platform run on StatSheet.com that provides fans and bloggers with statistical analysis, charts and embeddable sport stats. Founded and run by former Cisco engineer Robert Allen, the site at one point maintained Twitter accounts for each NBA, NFL and college team. StatSheet says it is currently tracking over 250 million sports stats and aims to extend its reach to all major sports. The company intends to roll out an extensive network of team‑specific sites updated in real time with game previews, player news and recap analysis. Allen plans to use new funding to hire a developer team to expand content variety and automate creation. He describes StatSheet’s ambition as becoming “a new type of sports media company that is focused on technology and automation…”

Participated · Equity · Apr 2010

Imagine Communications develops MPEG-4 encoding and transcoding products that enable content providers and system operators to deliver bandwidth-intensive services with optimum video quality. Its products serve the digital broadcast markets as well as emerging applications. The company completed a $10M expansion venture capital financing, bringing total venture capital investment to more than $34M. The new financing will be used to expand customer support and accelerate commercial deployment of its MPEG-4 solutions. Imagine maintains R&D facilities in Israel. The company focuses on commercial roll-out of its video solutions across broadcast and emerging service markets.

Led · Equity · Jun 2008

GreatCall Inc. is a San Diego, CA-based developer of health and wellness wireless services focused on the mature population. The company provides cell phone handsets and apps, including The 5Star™ and The Jitterbug™, sold nationwide at retailers such as Wal‑Mart, Best Buy, Sears, Meijer, Radio Shack Dealer Franchise, Fry’s Electronics and ShopKo. Its services provide coverage across the U.S. and Canada. GreatCall is backed by Charles River Ventures, Court Square Ventures, Nauta Capital, Steelpoint Capital Partners and Sumitomo. The company received a $7m subordinated venture loan from NXT Capital Venture Finance. It intends to use the additional capital to expand its portfolio of services for consumers. GreatCall builds the Jitterbug phone as a counterpoint to feature-rich smartphones, targeting users who primarily want to make voice calls. The device features large, easy-to-see keys, a backlit display with large dialing numbers, powerful speakers for loud volume, and 24-hour operators who can dial calls and add contacts. Service for the phone starts at $10 a month, and coverage is available in the U.S. and Canada. Jitterbug is sold through retailers including Best Buy, Sears, select CVS locations, Beltone Hearing Centers, and wireless retailers nationwide. The company launched the phone in 2006 and is led by founders Marty Cooper and Arlene Harris, both noted figures in wireless history.