The Venture Codex

Led · Series B · Oct 2021

GreenPark Sports operates a mobile platform that marries communities of sports fans and esports fans, enabling members to compete and earn in-app rewards. The company announced a $31 million Series B raise and will deploy the capital to further develop its product. GreenPark recently partnered with Immutable X to bring NFTs to its community, enabling users to earn, trade, and protect digital items. The firm plans its first NFT drop in the coming weeks and aims to integrate NFTs with the core experience by early 2022. CEO Ken Martin said the company is focused on creating a new fan experience and expanding social ways for fans to connect and activate their fandom. The platform emphasizes a fan-first approach and intends to use the funding to push product development and community engagement. GreenPark Sports builds a mobile, free-to-play fan-engagement app that merges popular game mechanics with sports fandom, letting users compete in team and individual challenges and earn digital jerseys, hats and other gear. The app is designed to appeal to younger sports-minded casual fans who also play games, from casual mobile titles to competitive esports. GreenPark plans a Q1 2021 launch and has a multiyear partnership with the NBA and an existing deal with the League Championship Series (League of Legends). The platform will feature virtual areas devoted to pro leagues with every team represented and intends to monetize through advertising, virtual goods sales and other in-app purchases. The company is roughly two years old and is co-founded by Ken Martin (CEO), YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley and Zappos founder Nick Swinmurn, who are also minority NBA team owners. GreenPark recently completed a Series A financing, giving it fresh capital to execute its launch and league partnership plans. GreenPark Sports is building a live, social game for sports fans that is designed to be played alongside live events rather than after them. The product will pipe in live game data starting with the NBA and expand to other leagues, and it emphasizes visualizations, gamecast-like data, highlight clips and social viewing. Players will use cartoon avatars with facial expressions and full-body gestures, compete on leaderboards and interact in a massively multiplayer fan arena; the experience is free-to-play. Monetization plans mentioned include virtual clothing and digital team apparel for avatars. The company positions itself as an alternative to fantasy sports and sees opportunity among millennial and Gen Z fans. GreenPark plans a closed beta and a broader launch in spring 2020. The founding team includes YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley, Nick Swinmurn (Zappos co-founder) and Ken Martin (founder of marketing agency BLITZ). Financially, GreenPark completed an $8.5 million seed round to fund early development and launch.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2021

Crush Capital is a Los Angeles–based fintech company that created the streaming series “Going Public,” designed to bring IPO and pre‑IPO investing to retail investors worldwide. The core product is a 10‑episode series that chronicles founders seeking capital; the premiere season is hosted by Lauren Simmons and features on‑camera mentors and prominent business leaders. Companies featured on the show will seek investment through public offerings under the Regulation A+ exemption; two participants—NexGenT and Proven Skincare—have been announced, with three additional late‑stage startups to be revealed over the summer. The series will stream to Entrepreneur.com’s 20 million monthly visitors this fall and is being produced by Emmy‑nominated INE Entertainment. Crush Capital will use recent funding to accelerate the show’s development and advance its goal of widening retail access to IPO and pre‑IPO investing. To date the “Going Public” project has raised $6.0 million in total funding. Crush Capital is a Los Angeles fintech company co-founded by Darren Marble and Todd Goldberg with a mission to bring IPO investing to everyday Americans. It is the creator of Going Public, a 10-episode interactive streaming series hosted by Lauren Simmons that follows five entrepreneurs pursuing Nasdaq listings. The series will enable viewers to invest in Regulation A+ IPOs while they watch and will feature business leaders including Jeff Hoffman and Jaime Schmidt. The company operates goingpublic.com to increase access to Regulation A+ IPOs and other financial products. Crush Capital raised $3.25M in seed funding to finance production, operations and marketing for Going Public. The series is slated to premiere to Entrepreneur.com's audience of 14 million unique monthly viewers in the summer.