• Class101

  Participated · Series B · Nov 2023

  Class101 operates a global integrated subscription platform that launched in December and offers more than 5,300 classes spanning hobbies, career, money, and kids. Six months after the global subscription launch the company reached 150,000 paid subscribers. In September, on the first anniversary of its subscription conversion, Class101 achieved breakeven and reported monthly profitability. The company plans to use new funding to further refine its subscription service and to develop services that expand the experience spectrum for classmates and creators. Management says it will continue product development to strengthen market competitiveness and foster deeper creator–community interactions. The funding is presented as a springboard for more systematic and accelerated growth. CLASS101 is an online marketplace for creative classes that helps creators monetize skills by selling courses, goods and digital files. The platform provides and ships necessary tools and materials via a "Class Kit" and offers more than 2,000 classes across categories like drawing, crafts, photography, cooking and music. As of August 2021 it reports about 100,000 registered creators, roughly 3 million registered users, and 350 employees, with roughly 230 classes in the U.S. and 220 in Japan. The company was established in 2018 after pivoting from a tutoring-service platform founded in 2015. CLASS101 launched in the U.S. in 2019, entered Japan in 2020, and opened online classes for kids under 14 in 2020. It plans to use new funding to hire talent, expand domestic business and grow further in the U.S. and Japan while broadening creators' revenue streams. Class101 operates a hobby-focused platform where online users subscribe to “classes” to share interests and hone related skills. Its catalog includes illustration, calligraphy, handicrafts and cooking classes. The service targets users in their 20s and 30s seeking work–life balance and productive use of free time. The company emphasizes content production and platform development as strategic priorities, according to its lead investor. Class101 was founded in 2015 by Ko Ji-yeon, then an undergraduate at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology. Financially, the company has completed a new funding event, adding to an earlier seed round.

• Spatial

  Participated · Equity · Dec 2021

  Spatial has repositioned from an AR/VR collaboration platform to a metaverse focused on cultural events such as NFT exhibitions, brand experiences, and conferences across web, mobile, and VR. Its core product lets creators customize virtual spaces, host events, curate galleries, and meet in immersive environments with simple tools and no coding required. The company reports that 80% of current users access Spatial via web and mobile (compared with 80% via headset last year) and has seen four times usage growth in just two months. Spatial supports Ethereum wallets via MetaMask today and plans to add other blockchains, pursuing an open, on-chain, interoperable metaverse where 3D spaces can be owned and shared across platforms. It will offer limited-edition, purpose-built NFT environments and is launching a Spatial NFT Genesis drop on December 15th. The company works with artists, brands, and institutions to power exhibitions, music and sports experiences, and collector meetups. Spatial builds a holographic collaboration platform that lets people meet and work together in virtual rooms using expressive avatars and shared holographic models. The app is interoperable across headsets and devices including Microsoft HoloLens, Oculus Quest, Magic Leap One, Qualcomm XR2 devices, Android/iPhone mobile devices, and basic PCs. Spatial has seen enterprise traction with inbound interest from 25% of the Fortune 1,000 and publicly named customers such as Mattel, Purina/Nestle and BNP Paribas. The company plans to expand functionality and hardware interoperability and is considering opening its technology as a platform or SDK for third parties. Leadership includes CEO and cofounder Anand Agarawala and cofounder/CPO Jinha Lee. Financially, Spatial has raised venture funding to date and is positioning itself to capitalize on new hardware and 5G-enabled low-latency infrastructure. Spatial builds an AR-based remote collaboration platform that lets users hold meetings as peer AR avatars and use a voice UI to interact within a shared three-dimensional workspace. The company uses machine learning and 3D computing to create an avatar from a single picture and synthesize it into AR. Spatial’s solutions can be used with AR headsets such as holo-lens and magic leaf or accessed via an ordinary web browser without special devices. The product enables users to build digital work environments in surrounding space for idea generation and meeting notes. Spatial is piloting its solution with Ford X, a venture incubator organization tied to a global automotive company. The founding team is led by CEO Anand Agarawala, who previously sold 3D software company Bump Technology to Google in 2010, and co-founder Lee Jin-ha, formerly a senior researcher at Samsung Electronics. Financially, the company recently received a $500,000 investment from Kakao Ventures and had earlier initial investment from Garrett Camp, Mark Pincus, and Samsung NEXT. Spatial offers a software-first, hardware-agnostic augmented reality platform focused on enterprise collaboration, combining a remote-presence experience with a suite of knowledge tools and an "infinite desktop" that uses the room as your monitor. Users can join shared AR spaces via headsets, web, or phone apps, interact with avatars of colleagues, and manipulate shared documents, websites, and images. The company partners with Microsoft HoloLens but supports other hardware and non-headset clients. Spatial is commercially piloting with a handful of companies, including Ford X, and can currently support about 15–20 people in a session with plans to scale to hundreds. The product intentionally omits a presenter mode to encourage more natural, social interactions. Spatial raised seed funding to support these enterprise-focused deployments and scaling efforts.

No current team members are available.