• VenueNext

  Participated · Series A · Jun 2015

  VenueNext builds a smartphone platform that improves the guest experience at venues by consolidating ordering, merchandise, replays, ticketing and other services into a single app. The platform ties together operational systems in a venue and delivers real-time data insights that help venue owners improve operations and increase revenue. VenueNext’s technology is used by Major League Sports, hospitality and healthcare customers, including the San Francisco 49ers, Minnesota Timberwolves and the Orlando Magic. Those customers have generated millions of dollars in increased revenues from leveraging VenueNext’s platform. VenueNext plans to integrate Intel technologies such as Intel True View to add immersive 5K, volumetric 3D replay and multi-perspective views directly in-app. The privately held company was founded in 2013 and has offices in Silicon Valley, San Francisco and New York. VenueNext provides a mobile platform that lets attendees use mobile tickets to enter events, order food, drinks and merchandise for delivery to their seats, and access venue information and amenities. The product debuted at Levi's Stadium and is used at major venues including Yankee Stadium, Churchill Downs, U.S. Bank Stadium, AT&T Stadium, Belmont Park, Saratoga Springs and the SAP Center. The company spun out of the San Francisco 49ers stadium technology group and was founded in 2013. VenueNext has expanded its customer base beyond stadiums to theme parks and is signing hotels and hospitals to use the app. The platform includes features such as ticket forwarding and mechanisms for teams to resell unused tickets and issue credit to original buyers. The company plans to expand into Europe and extend beyond live entertainment, exploring emerging technologies from augmented reality to delivery drones. VenueNext provides a venue-licensed technology platform comprising a guest-facing mobile app for each stadium and a backend system for venue operators. The guest app targets five core experiences: ticketing/access, food and beverage ordering, parking and directions, loyalty programs, and exclusive live in-app content. The venue-facing platform integrates with food and retail POS, existing e-ticketing solutions, and parking-pass validation systems to tie those experiences together. A rollout at Levi's Stadium showed strong traction: roughly 30% app adoption (versus an industry average under 5%) and more than $1.25 million in in-app food, beverage, and merchandise sales. The company said it plans to be in 30 venues by the end of 2015 and names John Paul as CEO and founder. Strategic investor relationships are presented as potential distribution or partnership channels with venues and event operators.

• Swirl Networks

  Participated · Series C · Apr 2015

  Swirl Networks is a Boston, MA-based provider of a proximity-based indoor mobile marketing platform. Its core product leverages Bluetooth Low Energy and Apple’s iBeacon technologies to enable retailers and brands to deliver relevant digital content and offers to consumers’ smartphones while they shop in specific areas of a store. Customers include Lord & Taylor, Hudson’s Bay, Urban Outfitters, Marriott, Alex and Ani, and Timberland. The company raised $18M in this venture capital financing and has $32M in total funding to date. Backers in the round included Hearst Ventures, Longworth Venture Partners, SoftBank Capital, Twitter Ventures and other strategic investors. Swirl intends to use the funds to expand sales and marketing operations and invest in product innovation. The company is led by founder and CEO Hilmi Ozguc and focuses on proximity marketing for brick-and-mortar retail. Swirl Networks offers an in-store mobile marketing platform that leverages indoor micro-location targeting to deliver relevant messages, content and offers to consumers while they shop. The platform is designed to increase store traffic, customer engagement and sales conversions for retailers. Customers mentioned include Timberland, Kenneth Cole and Alex and Ani. The company is led by founder and CEO Hilmi Ozguc. Swirl closed an $8M funding round to support its growth. It intends to use the funds to expand its technology platform into the large-scale, multi-category retail market. Swirl Networks offers a website and free iOS app that acts as a mobile personal shopping assistant focused on offline fashion discovery. The app surfaces real-time deals, directs users to nearby stores, and enables sharing and collaboration via Facebook. At launch Swirl reported 220 deals with major brands such as Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Old Navy, covering 30,000 stores and 100,000 items across the U.S. The product learns user preferences over time to make personalized suggestions and aims to keep users engaged even when they are not actively shopping. Swirl is developing a retailer dashboard to provide brands with in-store consumer insights and plans to expand beyond fashion into categories like housewares. The company also plans to add mobile payment functionality eventually, while for now prioritizing driving in-store sales.

• Cyanogen

  Participated · Series C · Mar 2015

  Cyanogen provides Cyanogen OS to customize mobile devices and operates the CyanogenMod open-source project. Led by CEO Kirt McMaster, the company is based in Palo Alto, CA and Seattle, WA. It completed an $80M Series C financing and has received a total of $110M in funding to date. The company intends to use the funds to hire new people and accelerate development of its open OS platform. Cyanogen's core product focuses on allowing users and partners to customize mobile device and content experiences. Cyanogen develops CyanogenMod (CM), a replacement Android OS that completely replaces the operating system on Android devices with a custom image providing modern Android, multiple themes, and other tweaks. The product is positioned as an alternative mobile platform and is frequently referred to as CM. The company announced it has raised an additional $23 million led by Andreessen Horowitz. The fresh capital is intended to fuel rapid expansion as Cyanogen aims to “grow like crazy” and become the No. 3 mobile platform. The article does not include operating metrics, a product roadmap, or further financial details. Cyanogen builds CyanogenMod, an alternative Android firmware/ROM that adds security, personalization and performance improvements to stock Android. The product is distributed as a flashable ROM that users install to replace the default software on their devices. The project has grown organically to roughly 8 million direct users, and its code is used by other Android variants such as Xiaomi’s MiUI, extending its reach. The team has 17 employees and has transitioned from a hobby project toward a commercial business. With the new funding the company is prioritizing development of a one-click installer to make installation as simple as downloading an app from Google Play. Cyanogen maintains multiple release tracks, including a daily "bleeding edge" build and monthly stable builds to serve both experimental and mainstream users.

No current team members are available.