Participated · Series A · Jan 2022

Lemonada Media operates a growing podcast network with a slate of 20 original shows and reaches millions of listeners per month. The company was founded in 2019 by Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs and is entering its third year of operation. In 2021 Lemonada tripled its revenue, added 10 new shows, and designed and trademarked an audio reality studio called BEING Studios led by Kasey Barrett. It has co-created original series such as Written Off with Jay Ellis’ Black Bar Mitzvah and Believe Her with Spiegel & Grau, which launched at the top of podcast charts. The network is pursuing continued global expansion after achieving No. 1 shows in Europe with In Giro con Fra (Italy) and As Me with Sinéad (Ireland).

Participated · Equity · Feb 2016

Wevr is a creative development and production studio focused on interactive and spatial (XR) experiences and real-time 3D content. Its core offerings include immersive and location-based experiences, spatial apps, and a Virtual Studio platform for real-time 3D production. The studio develops for headsets and screen formats such as Apple Vision Pro, HTC Vive, and Meta Quest and partners with brands to deliver experiential content. Wevr announced $3.5 million in new funding from HTC and Epic Games to expand its Virtual Studio technology and real-time production capabilities. Leadership is led by cofounders Neville Spiteri, Anthony Batt, and Marcel Samek, and the company recently added Tim Dillon as EVP Business Development. With a decade of XR work, Wevr’s past projects include Harry Potter VR, TheBlu franchise, brand experiences for Google, Samsung and Universal, and collaborations with Jon Favreau and Run The Jewels. Wevr is launching Transport, a video platform currently in private beta designed to showcase VR filmmaking. Transport will be available on the web and on major VR head-mounted displays including Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, Oculus VR and PlayStation VR. The company aims to connect content creators with a large network of VR users and to be the most effective way for VR filmmakers to showcase their work. To reach as wide an audience as possible, Transport is being built as a cross-platform service across web and all major HMD platforms. Wevr has secured $25 million in investments from a group of strategic partners to support product development and distribution. The team emphasizes early experimentation in content distribution given limited data on VR content absorption patterns. WEVR is an open VR platform and community based in Los Angeles that enables developers to create and publish virtual-reality content. The company operates a grant program, OnWEVR, which awards VR producers between $5,000 and $50,000 to support projects. HTC purchased a roughly 15% stake in WEVR for nearly $10 million, providing a material capital injection. HTC framed the investment as a way to build more content for its upcoming Vive headset and to bolster the Vive ecosystem. The timing aligns with HTC’s planned consumer release of the Vive later that year (possibly November). TechCrunch contacted WEVR for more information on how it plans to use the capital from HTC.