Participated · Series A · Nov 2018

UnitedMasters is a distribution platform and toolset launched in 2017 by Steve Stoute that lets artists publish to major streaming services while retaining control of their masters. The product emphasizes a direct pipeline to audience and engagement data so artists can sell tickets, merchandise and secure brand deals. The company also offers integrations and partnerships with brands and platforms such as the NBA, ESPN, TikTok and Twitch. UnitedMasters reports serving about 1 million current artists and provides at-a-glance stream, fan and earnings data through its app. The business model centers on empowering independent artists with technical and commercial capabilities typically held by labels and managers. As part of its growth plan, the company intends to hire mission-oriented local technical and artist talent to expand the platform globally. UnitedMasters is a platform and record-label alternative that helps artists retain rights to their master recordings while earning royalties and distributing music to major DSPs. The company provides artist profiles, distribution, analytics, and an opt-in system for brand and league placements. It operates a creative agency called Translation to help market artists, merchandise and ticket sales directly. UnitedMasters emerged from stealth about a year prior and is led by founder and CEO Steve Stoute, the former president of Interscope Records. The firm has secured strategic backing to pursue partnerships that expand artist reach and provide data-driven insights into audience performance. A flagship partnership with the NBA will make UnitedMasters artists eligible to have music played across NBA digital and social properties and will be used to measure the impact of placement on artist metrics.

Participated · Series C · Mar 2018

Atom Tickets offers an app that surfaces movie information (reviews, trailers), lets users share listings, poll friends, buy advance tickets with group seating and separate payments, and order concessions to skip lines. The product integrates social features with ticketing to enable group planning and to capture behavioral data for studios about what users look up, share and ultimately buy. After rolling out across the United States in 2016, the company says it tripled its users and ticket sales in one year, and it partners with chains including AMC, Regal, Southern Theatres, Showcase and B&B. Atom positions itself as a marketing and distribution channel for studios, helping target advertising and ticket-sales efforts amid pressure from streaming services and soft box office admissions. Management says the new funding will be used to innovate the product experience and create marketing campaigns to engage movie fans. Atom Tickets is a Santa Monica-based mobile app that lets users find and buy movie tickets for groups. The company offers iOS and Android apps that allow friends to coordinate ticket purchases, automatically share theater plans with friends, and pay for their tickets separately. Atom Tickets raised $50M in a funding round disclosed in early February 2016. The round was led by Lionsgate and included The Walt Disney Company and Fox as investors. The company was founded by Ameesh Paleja, Matthew Bakal, and Geoff Schaevitz. Paleja was the first employee and head of Amazon.com's digital R&D facility in Southern California, where he oversaw more than 550 employees.

Participated · Series B · Oct 2016

Baobab Studios creates character-driven virtual reality animated experiences, emphasizing storytelling over technical novelty. Its notable work includes the 6-minute VR short “Invasion!”, which attracted Hollywood attention and is being turned into a feature film by Roth Kirschenbaum. The company announced a next project titled “Asteroids!” and says its core tech will enable new storytelling techniques for VR creators. Baobab has partnered with major platform players—previous investors include Samsung and HTC—and its title “Invasion!” was included on the PlayStation VR demo disc. The studio has about 20 employees and is expanding its executive team, adding former Pixar/Dreamworks exec Larry Cutler as CTO and bringing Within CEO Chris Milk onto its advisory board. Financially, Baobab has raised a total of $31 million to date following its latest round and positions storytelling as central to driving VR adoption as hardware becomes widely available. Baobab Studios is a US virtual reality animation content and technology company that creates story- and character-driven cinematic experiences. It produces animated short films for VR platforms; its first short, Invasion, is available in Samsung Gear VR. The company plans to work with HTC to distribute its movies on the Vive platform in the coming year. On June 12, 2015 Baobab raised $6m in a Series A funding round. Backers included Comcast Ventures, Samsung Ventures, HTC, Advancit Capital, Chernin Group, TheBoxGroup, Peter Thiel, Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus and other angel investors. Leadership includes Maureen Fan (CEO), Eric Darnell (Chief Creative Officer) and Michael Hutchinson (Chief Scientist Officer).