• Quarterback

  Participated · Seed · May 2018

  Quarterback offers a platform for creating gaming leagues and content driven by gamers and streamers rather than game publishers or existing streaming sites. Leagues on the platform can host daily challenges, give away prizes and compete against fan clubs devoted to other top players. The company positions itself to help streamers monetize their fan bases, own their channels, build game libraries and cultivate new talent while encouraging one-to-one interactions. Quarterback was founded by serial entrepreneur Jonathan Weinberg, who previously led Round Robin and held a leadership role at Spartonix. Financially, the company has just completed a $2.5 million seed raise led by Bitkraft Esports, with additional participation from Crest Capital Ventures, Deep Space Ventures, UpWest Labs and angel investors. The product is focused on tying top gamers more directly to their audiences and shifting revenue and control toward the creators themselves.

• SmartZip

  Led · Series B · Jul 2014

  SmartZip provides SmartTargeting, a predictive marketing platform used by thousands of real estate professionals to identify and connect with home sellers. The company recently added SmartTargeting for your Sphere to help users maximize repeat business from past clients and contacts. SmartZip acquired Reach150, a referral management platform, and will integrate Reach150’s content and referral marketing tools into SmartTargeting to surface user-generated content and referrals. In parallel SmartZip received a strategic growth equity investment from Toba Capital to accelerate product and market development of the combined solutions; the amounts were not disclosed. Reach150’s referral system and mobile app manage recommendations and branded profile pages to strengthen online reputation and advertising; Reach150’s team will be integrated into SmartZip’s Silicon Valley headquarters. SmartZip serves customers across real estate, lending, insurance, solar and automotive and is backed by Intel Capital, Claremont Creek Ventures, Crest Capital, Javelin Venture Partners, Cue Ball Capital, Toba Capital and ORIX Growth Capital. SmartZip Analytics offers a SaaS predictive marketing platform, SmartTargeting, that uses patent-pending home intelligence, predictive analytics and automated marketing campaigns to identify and engage top home-seller prospects. The company has introduced SmartTargeting for Lenders to deliver predicted “Pre-Mover Scores” for contacts in a lender’s database or any U.S. market and launched SphereTargeting to generate repeat business from past customers through targeted multi-channel advertising. SmartZip also released a mobile CRM called CheckIn to help customers manage leads with rich data and insights on the go. Led by president and CEO Avi Gupta, the company serves national real estate customers including Homes.com, ZipRealty.com, HomeSnap, foreclosure.com and RealtyStore.com. The firm plans to use new financing to roll out and drive adoption of SphereTargeting and to expand further into the mortgage vertical with its lender-focused edition. Smartzip Analytics collects property and demographic data and sells analytics to real estate brokers and portals. Its new product, Smart Target, uses a proprietary algorithm and big data to zero in on homes most likely to be sold in the next six to twelve months. The tool is marketed to agents and brokers to help them prioritize leads and spend less time on weaker prospects. Smartzip already counts large real estate portals among customers, including Homes.com, ZipRealty, and RealtyTrac.com. The company is based in Pleasanton, Calif. According to a Securities and Exchange document, Smartzip has raised new capital and now totals $23 million in venture investment. SmartZip Analytics, Inc. is a Pleasanton, California-based provider of independent investment ratings and analysis for residential real estate. The company's core product is home investment ratings and reports used by home buyers, investors and real estate professionals to find, compare and assess the best places and properties to buy. SmartZip builds its ratings using proprietary analytics to bring efficiency to the real estate market. Its products are intended to help consumers make better informed, more confident home purchase decisions. The company secured new funding from Intel Capital's Invest in America Technology Fund and will use the capital to expand availability of its ratings and reports nationwide. SmartZip is an early-stage real estate intelligence site that has begun private testing of its product. The company has sent invitations to select individuals who can sign into the site with personalized passwords. It is not yet clear what specific real estate data or models the service will provide, or whether it will resemble Zillow’s home-appraisal approach. SmartZip’s public-facing tagline is, “Know if a property is worth buying.” Financially, the company has just completed a first round of funding. The raise totals $2.05 million from Claremont Creek Ventures, Step5 Venture Partners and Northpoint Financial Group.

• WeVideo

  Led · Equity · Apr 2012

  WeVideo provides a cloud-based video editing application that enables users to create video content and collaborate via web browsers and mobile devices, with integrations into learning management systems for privacy, security and user provisioning. The company focuses on the K-12 education market and is the only video creation solution included in Google's Education Creative Bundle for Chromebooks. WeVideo serves more than 6,500 school districts and over four million students, and more than 25 million total users across business, nonprofit and individual markets. It also supplies a video engine to third-party media solutions via APIs and other integrations. Company leadership says recent product innovation, customer growth and profitability position WeVideo to accelerate growth, expand reach and create new value with the new investment. WeVideo offers a cloud-based, collaborative video editing platform that scales processing on demand and allows multiple contributors to share and edit projects through a single interface. The service operates on a freemium model (1 GB workspace free) with paid tiers ranging from $6.99 to $79.99 per month for 10–100 GB, varying export quality and features, plus an enterprise offering with pricing on request. The company has partnerships and integrations including YouTube (integrated at YouTube.com/create), Qatar Foundation International, Startup Idol, and TechZulu, and it launched an Android tablet editing app. WeVideo was launched in fall 2011 as a spinoff from Creaza and is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. Management says it is expanding beyond consumers into B2B, plans new product offerings and price points, and will open offices in Europe, Asia and the U.S. The company reported over 125,000 users in January, had about 1,000 video projects per day in January (now “much higher”), and did not disclose a current user total. WeVideo provides a Flash-based, in-browser video editor that is now accessible through YouTube’s Create page, offering a free tier to YouTube users. The editor includes effects, music, color correction, titles and animations and gives users fine-grained control over edits compared with some automated tools. The company launched at DEMO Fall 2011 and is Sunnyvale, Calif.-based with about 15 employees. WeVideo has plans to bring its editing tools to Android devices. At launch the co-founders self-funded the company with $1.4 million, and the company this week secured an additional $1.1 million from private European and U.S. investors. The company is also in talks with several large VC firms for a funding round planned in the first quarter of 2012.

No current team members are available.