Investment in “entertainment” (worded as such) is tough to explain and guide. Appreciate that the production of entertainment (a film, music, or game) is a creative asset and rarely considered the opportunity in wealth might invest – generally that’s considered financing and we shared a bit about getting a film financed, as an example, here.
Note, investors seek a return upon an exit (acquisition or IPO — going public — of a company) and as such, we have to distinguish the production of entertainment from investment in the company itself.
Still, the question begs, where’s the money for entertainment companies?
We’ve been working on pulling together the data; and while our lists aren’t complete, here are some thoughts…
Our Venture Capital Firm list needs work so bear with the complete thought here. Here’s what we have in our ever growing wiki to give you a hand:
- Admiral Capital Group
- Bloomberg Beta
- Comcast Ventures
- Founders Fund
- GV
- Horizons Ventures
- LOUD Capital
- MMF
- Qualcomm Ventures
- Samsung Ventures
Trust me, we know for a fact that that’s not remotely accurate; it’s a start so feel please comment below or become a contributor on our wiki to add some things we’re missing.
Corporate VC is important to consider as traditional investment doesn’t trickle to “entertainment” too easily
Based on the first half of 2016, note among the 10 most active corporate venture groups Google Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and Bloomberg Beta, and media oriented corporate venture capital would eclipse wholly half of the top 10 if Samsung Ventures, at #11, had made the 10 most active cut.
A veritable who’s who of major media companies and a substantial reflection of the significant role corporate investment plays, with Microsoft, Hearst, Verizon, Bertelsmann Digital Media, Nokia, and Time Warner among them. Warner Music Group just launch WMG Boost as evidence of the efforts.
- Ron Conway; Silicon Valley’s “super angel” known for his early support of media companies such as Facebook, Buzzfeed, and Napster
- David Rosenblatt; Who probably wrote the book on online adverstising following his role as CEO of DoubleClick and then President of Google Display. He sits on the board of Twitter and IAC, better known for brands such as Vimeo and CollegeHumor
- Bono; Yep, Bono. He co-founded Elevation Partners in 2004, a venture firm that focuses on media, entertainment and technology companies
- Nas; Having invested in dozens of startups, it’s not just his work as the second musician on our list that makes him notable but hist investment in text annotation service Genius and DeviantArt that strikes the media chord
- Justin Bieber; Beliebit. Beiber is tremendous patron of media ventures with a stake in Tinychat, Stamped, Spotify, and Shots
- Stanley Kirk Burrell; Also known as MC Hammer, you’ll catch him at Raiders games when he’s not advising media companies such as Pandora and Flipboard
- Jeff Clavier; Involved in Kongregate (acquired by GameStop) as well as Seesmic, Wildire, and Ustream
- Brad Svrluga; Who has had his hand in the music and ticketing industries
- Dave McClure; 500 Startups’ McClure has helped Slideshare, Visually, MoviePigs, Creative Market, and more get off the ground
- Kevin Colleran; In some familiar media names such as Meerkat, Rockbot, Say Media, LookMark, Media Spike, Pinterest, and SmartThings
- Naval Ravikant; Whom might be familiar by way of AngelList is in PickaFlick, Sosh, https://SocialMedia.com, Udemy, Twitter, and 9GAG
- David Cohen; Of Techstars I wanted to mention as they might be the incubator for media. David is in Next Big Sound, Circa, EventVue, Graphicly, KiteReaders, LaunchTrack, SlideBean, Post Rocket, and many more
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