Participated · Series B · Dec 2021

Palm NFT Studio operates a proprietary platform built on Ethereum that enables the development and rollout of large-scale NFT drops and bespoke services for brands, IP holders and creators across movies, games, music and art. The studio partners with creators and brands to power NFT projects and focuses on easy onboarding, regulatory compliance and environmental sustainability. In its first eight months the company supported high-profile drops including Damien Hirst’s The Currency (which generated a market cap over $600M within two months) and broad fan-distribution programs for Space Jam 2 and DC FanDome 2021, distributing hundreds of thousands of NFTs. Palm NFT Studio has also worked with Pace Gallery (Pace Verso) and Portion, and assisted in launching the Palm Network, an Ethereum sidechain focused on NFTs that hosts projects like Candy Digital’s MLB platform and Nifty’s The Matrix program. The company was co-founded by Joseph Lubin, David Heyman, Joe Hage and Daniel Heyman. It recently raised funding to scale the team and continue developing its technology platform.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2018

NewTV is developing mobile‑first video content that applies Hollywood production values to bite‑sized formats of 10 minutes or less. The company says it will pair that content approach with custom‑designed technology built specifically for mobile. NewTV is being incubated by Jeffrey Katzenberg’s WndrCo, and Meg Whitman was named CEO in January. Details about distribution strategy remain unclear — the company may own and distribute content, operate a standalone service, or pursue a hybrid approach. The market opportunity is uncertain in light of established short‑form platforms like YouTube and growing streaming services such as Amazon, Netflix and Hulu. Financially, NewTV has been pursuing large external funding, per press reports cited in the article.

Participated · Series B · Dec 2017

Dreamscape delivers location-based VR “adventures” across four sites worldwide using proprietary full-body tracking and cinematic storytelling to create untethered, participatory experiences. Its ADEPT (Avatar Driven Educational and Practical Training) platform and rendering/tracking tech aim to reproduce real-world feel for both entertainment and training. Dreamscape has partnered with Arizona State University on Dreamscape Learn to bring avatar-based AR/VR to on-campus and online courses, including an immersive biology curriculum with a 16x16-foot pod planned for 2021. The company’s founders include former DreamWorks Motion Pictures head Walter Parkes and Disney Imagineering alum Bruce Vaughn. Dreamscape’s investor base includes entertainment names such as WarnerMedia, Viacom, Disney, AMC, IMAX, Steven Spielberg, and Hans Zimmer. Verizon Ventures has taken an equity stake and will collaborate on 5G- and mobile edge compute–powered learning and training applications; financial terms were not disclosed. Dreamscape Immersive is a Los Angeles-based location-based virtual reality company that offers untethered VR experiences using body-mapping technology created by Swiss research institute Artanim. Founded in January 2017 by co-chairmen Walter Parkes and Kevin Wall alongside CEO Bruce Vaughn and COO Aaron Grosky, the company builds cinematic, interactive worlds for participants to enter and explore. Its flagship location was slated to open to the public at Westfield Century City Mall in Los Angeles in 2018. Dreamscape has a strategic partnership with AMC Entertainment, with AMC committed to open and operate up to six Dreamscape VR centers within AMC theatres and at standalone locations in North America and the U.K. The company intends to use new funding to scale operations, build a marquee slate of content, and further global expansion into new territories. Financially, Dreamscape closed a $30M Series B financing to support those plans. Dreamscape Immersive is a Los Angeles-based developer of immersive virtual reality entertainment experiences. It builds location-based VR entertainment offerings intended for public entertainment centers. The company said it plans to open a flagship "VR Multiplex" at the Westfield Century City Mall in fall of this year. Dreamscape raised a Series A financing; the company did not publicly disclose the round size, though a regulatory filing indicates around $11.36M. The Series A was led by Bold Capital Partners and included Warner Bros., 21st Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), IMAX Corporation, Westfield Corporation, and Steven Spielberg. Founders and co-chairmen are Walter Parkes and Kevin Wall, and Bruce Vaughn, formerly of Disney Imagineering, was named CEO.

Participated · Equity · Jan 2017

HOOQ is a streaming service founded by Singtel, Sony Pictures and Warner Brothers that offers locally focused on-demand video across Southeast Asian markets. The service launched first in Indonesia, the Philippines, India and Thailand in 2015 and added Singapore later. HOOQ differentiated early via features important in emerging markets such as carrier billing and download options. The company has been relatively quiet since launch as regional and global rivals have expanded. Management says it will evaluate funding options and is preparing to welcome outside investors later this year. Financially, HOOQ has raised $95M to date after the most recent capital increase disclosed by Singtel.

Participated · Series C · Feb 2016

Magic Leap develops augmented‑reality headsets and related software, having launched the Magic Leap One and later Magic Leap 2 as it shifted fully into enterprise use cases. The company targets verticals such as healthcare, design, manufacturing and collaboration and is pursuing commercial adoption across customer use cases, applications and content. Magic Leap employs about 1,000 people and has raised roughly $4.5 billion in total funding to date. Leadership recently changed: Ross Rosenberg became CEO in November after Peggy Johnson stepped down; founder Rony Abovitz started the company in 2011 and left as CEO in 2020. Management says the product roadmap focuses on expanding field of view and immersiveness, making devices more mobile and less tethered, and ultimately reducing size and weight toward glasses‑like form factors. Magic Leap faces new competition from Apple’s Vision Pro (launching next month) and Meta Quest 3, but cites a slight pricing advantage ($3,300 versus Apple’s $3,500) and continued focus on enterprise precision use cases. Magic Leap is an augmented-reality startup focused on headsets and forthcoming AR glasses. The company has shifted its messaging and strategy to focus on enterprise customers after years of pursuing military and consumer opportunities and bankrolling expensive games for its costly headset. It revealed a smaller-footprint next device, called the Magic Leap 2, and said it will roll out that hardware sometime next year. The startup announced a $500 million financing at a $2 billion valuation from existing investors, echoing an October 2014 raise of $542 million at a reported $2 billion valuation. Crunchbase lists Magic Leap as having raised $3.5 billion in total funding; the company’s valuation has declined from $6.7 billion in 2019 and it nearly shut down last year, cutting staff and raising hundreds of millions at slashed valuation terms. The company replaced founder Rony Abovitz with former Microsoft VP Peggy Johnson as CEO and did not disclose the specific investors in the latest round. Magic Leap built high-profile augmented-reality hardware whose initial consumer device failed to meet expectations after years of hype. The company has abandoned consumer plans and is concentrating on enterprise opportunities, citing progress in healthcare, enterprise, and defense deals. In April it announced a large round of layoffs (about 1,000 jobs) and issued a WARN notice, later withdrawing that notice after new funding. CEO Rony Abovitz told staff the new financing came from unnamed current and new investors and hinted additional deals will be announced as they close. The company has raised roughly $2.6 billion across nine prior rounds. COVID-19 was cited by the company as a key reason for the April disruption. Magic Leap develops spatial-computing hardware and is pushing a cloud-oriented "Magicverse"—a spatially mapped digital infrastructure layer intended to enable cloud AR experiences. Its sole product, the Magic Leap One, retails for $2,295. The company has spent heavily on hardware and has been accused of having only marginal differentiation from competitors' devices. Leadership is emphasizing a shift toward platform and cloud plays, partnering with telecoms on 5G to support those ambitions. Magic Leap courts VR/game developers for content while also pursuing enterprise and strategic partnerships. Financially the company has raised substantial capital to fund its strategy, most recently securing additional financing from a major carrier. Magic Leap is an augmented-reality startup developing spatial computing hardware and software. Its first commercial device, the Magic Leap One Creator Edition, is described as a lightweight, wearable computer that enriches real-world experience with digital content; the Creator Edition is a limited developer-focused edition scheduled to ship later this year. Until the announcement the company had not launched a product, though it streamed a demo and specs of the Magic Leap One alongside the deal news. Magic Leap has raised roughly $2.35 billion to date to develop its hardware and software and completed a March financing that valued the company at $6.3 billion. Strategic backers named in the article include Google, Alibaba and Axel Springer. The company has entered an exclusive U.S. distribution and strategic partnership with AT&T covering network access, content distribution and devices, and AT&T will be the exclusive wireless distributor in select U.S. stores starting this summer. AT&T’s investment also makes its communications chief a board observer.