Hearst Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the eponymous US-based media group, has reportedly invested $30m for a 20% stake in Science, a US-based digital technology studio and incubator, accoring to news provider All Things D.
Mike Jones, chief executive of Science said: “It gives me great pride to announce that we received an equity investment from Hearst Ventures and that George Kliavkoff, executive vice-president and deputy group head of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, will join the Science board of directors.”
Science’s most recent deals include Fresh Dish, which raised $500,000 from venture capital firm Battery Ventures, and Urban Remedy, which gathered $1m in a seed round from Science and angels.
Jones founded Science in 2011 with a reported $10m from Google chairman Eric Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures, venture capital firms Rustic Canyon, White Star Capital and Social+Capital Partnership, and angels Jean-Marie Messier, Philippe Camus, Jonathan Miller and Dennis Phelps.
Jones has been a serial entrepreneur having sold Userplane to AOL in 2006 and Tsavo Media to Cyberplex and been chief executive of social network Myspace until its sale to Specific Media.