Entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) has launched Creative Labs, a startup studio focused on developing consumer-facing technology companies and next-generation media and entertainment experiences, and raised $12.5m in financing.
Backers included Boatrocker Ventures, Entertainment One (eOne), Real Ventures, Seedcamp Ventures, and The Telegraph Media Group in London, in addition to individuals such as Saul Klein, Jeff Mallett, and Lane Merrifield.
Based in Vancouver, Canada, Creative Labs’ CEO Mike Edwards leads a team of engineers, designers, and developers, who have unique access to CAA’s expertise, resources, and relationships, to ideate new businesses in such areas as OTT, VR/AR, gaming, and AI/messaging, in addition to digital consumer brands in ecommerce, mobile, social, and publishing.
Serial entrepreneur and venture capitalist Leonard Brody serves as Chairman and Co-Founder of the new venture.
Creative Labs has already launched two companies:
– Belletrist, a new product-driven media company focused on the link between millennial women, the arts and culture, and
– Ground Control, an interactive audio platform.
CAA has a proven incubation track record, having conceptualized and co-founded six venture-backed companies, including FunnyorDie and WhoSay, for which the agency has collectively raised more than $100m in third-party funding. With expertise in principal investing, CAA manages CAA Ventures, a venture fund that invests third-party capital in consumer technology businesses with high-growth opportunities.
To date, the fund has invested in more than three dozen companies, including August, Bark + Co., Drone Racing League, Giphy, Medium, and Patreon.
FinSMEs
30/10/2017