New York-listed tickets provider Live Nation Entertainment has started a corporate venturing unit following its acquistions of data provider BigChampagne and live music community site Setlist.fm.
LN Labs Fund is a vehicle for strategic investment, partnership and mentoring of early stage technologies and entrepreneurs, Live Nation said. Eric Garland, executive vice president, and Ethan Kaplan, vice president of products at Live Nation Labs; and Michael Abrams, president of Digital Ventures, will manage LN Labs Fund.
Kaplan said: "The challenge for these upstarts is finding their market fit. We bring that to the table. We insist on a very clear product market fit for everything we do."
Michael Rapino, chief executive of Live Nation, added: "We are interested in funding great new products that further engage fans and enrich the concert experience. There are a lot of little pieces on the board, and we’re developing a structure for putting the best pieces together.
"In the era of the social conversation, we’re a very focused platform. We’re specialists."