Media is among the most disrupted sectors in the past several decades by the mass adoption of new technology. Newspapers, magazines and books have largely gone digital, while subscription streaming services have practically replaced DVDs and even television channels. Big tech companies like Google and Facebook dominate digital advertising which has replaced Madison Avenue.
The paradigm shift is due to a blend of internet-connected electronic gadgets catering to consumers’ convenience and consumers themselves turning into content creators and providers. The impact of the pandemic and the nearly worldwide lockdown has varied.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) deems the pandemic’s impact to be mixed, while the sector’s near-term prospects for consumption and expenditure are patchy: “Accenture forecasts that the global GDP contribution of the communications, media and platforms sectors, which include traditional and digital-native media companies, will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% from 2019 to 2022, compared to a 0.5% CAGR across all industries. Despite this relatively strong anticipated growth, the industry is not insulated from the economic fallout of the covid-19 pandemic. Monthly global household expenditure on media and entertainment in 2022 is predicted to be 30-40% less compared to 2019, while global advertising spending for 2020 is expected to decrease 8.1% from 2019 levels.” This paints a challenging picture.
One of the key implications of this, according to the WEF, is a consolidation of direct-to-consumer platforms and premium niches. It forecasts “economic pressures and content supply shortages will result in eventual consolidation with mid-market players most at risk”. Implications the WEF also identified include: demanding consumer expectations, which will generate new “must-haves” in the end-to-end user experience; increasing challenges for content monetisation due to competition between professional and “amateur” content creators; and the necessity of ad-based and commerce models to evolve into something like a subscription-based business model. It also foresees more regulation, related primarily to data privacy, antitrust and misinformation issues, but contends that regulatory hurdles is not likely to hold back disruptive forces.
A report entitled “Perspectives from the Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2020–2024” by auditing and consulting firm PwC comes to similar conclusions: “Entertainment and media companies have to meet consumers where they are – and in 2020 that means predominantly at home and predominantly online. Companies simultaneously have to prepare to meet them where they will be four years from now. What will be required in 2024 to build and maintain direct-to-consumer relationships, to have enough differentiation or scale to compete, and to invest in the right technologies while building trust? Increasingly, companies will have to focus on mastering the intricacies of consumer experience. Providers have to continually figure out ways to delight consumers so they are willing to pay for the delivery of content and services, and must create differentiated experiences if they are to increase subscription charges over time.”
Advertising used to be dubbed the life-blood of the media industry and it still occupies a central and connecting role with other sectors. However, it has not remained unscathed by disruption, with the rise of digital advertising and marketing. Alphabet and Facebook have overtaken Madison Avenue and account for nearly 60% of the market share of digital advertisement revenues, according to various estimates.
When the pandemic broke out, short-term prospects for advertising were not enviable, as during a downturn companies’ marketing budgets tend to get reduced. However, some expected that digital advertising (that is Alphabet and Facebook) would be considerably less affected, as digital ads are considered to be more effective in reaching a target audience. Indeed, the two big tech companies have so far been reporting higher and higher earnings. Increasing returns to scale has been a benefit not only for Western digital behemoths like Alphabet and Facebook, though. China-based internet conglomerate Tencent also enjoyed enviable returns and its stock became the seventh largest company by market capitalisation in the world. It is therefore reasonable to expect we will continue to see corporate interest in adtech businesses.
In the medium term virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) content and tech is an area with much potential. 5G connectivity is expected to boost further adoption of VR and AR. According to the latest report by Market Research Future, the global VR market could reach $101.2bn by 2027, implying a CAGR of 37.4%. The report notes the use of VR across sectors like education, life sciences and gaming. It also points out that the pandemic has given it a boost: “Virtual reality had provided customers an escape through realistic games and immersive experiences. Some companies are capitalising on the pandemic for offering virtual tours of places at cost-effective prices. Integration of VR into mixed reality is likely to be lucrative for VR developers in the coming years. Emergence of startups and constant funding for developing feasible applications of VR are likely to continue despite the pandemic.”
The broader gaming space is has seen a lot of growth, in the short and long run, driven mostly by mobile gaming over the past decade. According to the most recent report by consulting firm Mordor Intelligence, the global gaming market was estimated at $162bn last year and forecast to reach $295.6bn by 2026 at a CAGR of 10.5%. The report identifies cloud gaming as major driver for disruption and is increasingly seen as a serious competitor to traditional gaming. It points as example how this trend has made video game majors such as Sega, Ubisoft, Epic Games, Atari, Warner Bros and Disney Interactive studio strike partnerships with cloud gaming providers like Onlive to distribute their games.
Within gaming, esports have become an inseparable part of the industry. Multiplayer video-game competitions have invigorated the bottom lines of game publishers and marketers. According to the Mordor Intelligence report: “Esports are witnessing substantial market demand in the current market scenario and are thus driving the overall gaming industry across the globe. Riot Games with League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients 2 are two of the notable examples of influential actors in the esports business. South Korea is considered the country of origin of esports. Even though the US overtook South Korea in terms of revenues in the esports business, it still hosts one of the biggest tournaments in the world.”
The sector in charts
For the period between April 2020 and March 2021, we reported 453 venturing rounds involving corporate investors from the media sector. A considerable number of them (142) took place in the US, while 131 were hosted in Japan, 35 in China and 29 in India.
On a calendar year-on-year basis, total capital raised in corporate-backed rounds went up from $10.1bn in 2019 to $10.94bn in 2020, suggesting a 9% increase. The deal count, however, decreased by 2% from 475 deals in 2019 up to 465 tracked by the end of last year. The 10 largest investments by corporate venturers from the media sector were not concentrated in the same industry.
The leading corporate investors from the media sector in terms of largest number of deals were digital media company Gree, media group Bertelsmann and messaging app Slack. The list of media corporates committing capital in the largest rounds was headed by Bertelsmann, media and e-commerce group Naspers and mass media group Liberty Global.
The most active corporate venture investors in the emerging media companies were financial telecoms and internet conglomerate SoftBank, internet company Tencent and diversified internet conglomerate Alphabet.
Overall, corporate investments in emerging media-focused enterprises went up from 224 rounds in 2019 to 244 by the end of 2020, suggesting a 9% increase. Estimated total dollars in those rounds stayed largely flat at $3.87bn, compared to $3.69bn in 2019. Overall, the pandemic shock did not have a big effect on dealmaking and flow of capital into these emerging businesses.
Deals
Corporates from the media sector invested in large multimillion-dollar rounds, raised mostly by enterprises from other sectors, primarily consumer and IT.
Cazoo, a UK-based online marketplace for used vehicles, obtained £240m ($308m) in a funding round, featuring DMG Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of media group Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT). General Catalyst and D1 Capital Partners co-led the round with funds managed by Fidelity and Blackrock. The round also featured including L Catterton, Durable Capital Partners, Spruce House Partnership, Novator, Mubadala Capital and unnamed backers.
The company was valued at more than $2.5bn. Founded in 2018, Cazoo runs an online dealership that enables customers to purchase used vehicles and have them delivered within three days. Users can access financing through the website and calculate the value of a part exchange for their current car.
GoPuff, the US-based operator of a personal services app, received $1.15bn from investors including SoftBank’s Vision Fundat an $8.9bn valuation. Investment and financial services group Fidelity Management and Research also took part in the round, as did hedge fund managers Luxor Capital and D1 Capital Partners, investment manager Baillie Gifford and investment firms Eldridge and Reinvent Capital.
Founded in 2013, GoPuff runs an online platform that allows users to order products such as food and drink, cleaning, baby and pet products, over-the-counter medications and, in some places, alcohol, for delivery. The company operates out of a network of fulfillment centres and charges a flat $1.95 fee per delivery. It will use the funding to expand geographically, extend its product range, increase its team and bolster its technology.
Finland-headquartered food and consumer goods delivery service Wolt completed a $530m funding round that included Prosus, the internet company formed by Naspers. The round was led by Iconiq Growth, a vehicle for investment firm Iconiq Capital, and also featured Goldman Sachs’ Growth Equity unit, Tiger Global Management, DST Global, KKR, EQT Ventures and EQT Growth, Coatue, 83North, Highland Europe and Vintage Investment Partners. Wolt runs an app that allows users in 23 countries to order food and consumer goods from restaurants, grocers and other local retailers for delivery, having expanded outwards from its core restaurant-focused business in the past year.
US-based cloud security software provider Lacework completed a $525m funding round, featuring Liberty Global Ventures and Snowflake Ventures, representing mass media group Liberty Global and data management technology producer Snowflake respectively. Private equity firm Sutter Hill Ventures and technology investment firm Altimeter Capital co-led the round, which included D1 Capital Partners, Coatue, Dragoneer Investment Group and Tiger Global Management. Lacework has built a cybersecurity platform designed for use with a range of cloud service providers, detecting behavioural anomalies and run-time threats in addition to ensuring cloud compliance. The company said it increased revenue by more than 300% during 2020.
US-based game development platform Roblox raised $520m in a series H round that included entertainment provider Warner Music Group, valuing it at $29.5bn. Investment firms Altimeter Capital and Dragoneer Investment Group co-led the round, which also featured Investment Group of
Santa Barbara.
Roblox is the creator of an online platform that allows users to build their own games and then share them with others. The platform had more than 31 million active users as of September 2020. Roblox subsequently went public through a reverse merger.
Dataminr, the information discovery software provider backed by financial services firm Credit Suisse, completed a $475m financing round, valuing it at $4.1bn. Eldridge, Valor Equity Partners, MSD Capital, Reinvent Capital, ArrowMark Partners, IVP and Eden Global provided the funding along with investment funds managed by investment banking firm Morgan Stanley’s Tactical Value subsidiary. Founded in 2009, Dataminr has built a software platform that analyses public data from sources including social media, blogs, web forums, the deep and dark web, internet-of-things sensors, audio and radio transmissions in real time to detect patterns and unearth information.
Zwift, the US-based operator of a social exercise platform, raised $450m from investors including e-commerce and home electronics firm Amazon’s Alexa Fund and bicycle maker Specialized Bicycle Components’ Zone 5 Ventures fund. Investment firm KKR led the round, which also featured private equity firm Permira, investment firms Novator Partners and True, venture capital firm Highland Europe and VC fund Causeway Media. It reportedly valued the company at more than $1bn.
Founded in 2014, Zwift runs an online platform where runners and cyclists can connect and race each other at home in immersive computer-generated environments. The platform has more than 2.5 million users and has begun organising dedicated events such as a virtual Tour de France. The funding has been earmarked for further development of the company’s software and the commercial launch of its first hardware products.
China-headquartered satellite developer Chang Guang Satellite Technology completed a RMB2.46bn ($375m) in a pre-IPO financing round, featuring artificial intelligence technology producer iFlytek. Haitong Securities affiliate Haitong Innovation Capital Management, Shenzhen Capital Group, Estar Capital, CICC Capital, Matrix Partners China, Shanda Capital, CAS Star and a government-guided fund from Jilin Province also took part in the round. Chang Guang is building a 60-strong satellite constellation called Jilin-1 that will use remote sensors to capture high-definition videos and optical and hyperspectral images for use in areas such as agriculture and forest management, city planning and map applications.
China-based online fitness class operator Keep recently completed a $360m series F round led by the SoftBank’s Vision Fund. Bertelsmann Asia Investments, a vehicle for Bertelsmann, also took part in the round, as did Tencent, Hillhouse Capital, Coatue Management, GGV Capital, 5Y Capital and Jeneration Capital.
The cash was secured reportedly at a post-money valuation of about $2bn.
Keep’s online platform provides livestreamed fitness class run by a network of fitness influencers, and it has expanded its registered users to 300 million, as the pandemic impacted gyms and users stayed home. The company has expanded into producing stationary exercise bikes and treadmills similar to the ones provided by US-based Peloton, in addition to healthy snacks and exercise apparel.
Scopely, the US-headquartered mobile game publisher backed by media group Advance, game producer Take-Two Interactive and over-the-top media company Chernin Group, secured $340m in series E funding. Wellington Management, NewView Capital, TSG Consumer Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s CPP Investments subsidiary, D1 Capital Partners, Battery Ventures, Eldridge and funds managed by BlackRock were all among the investors in the round, which reportedly valued the company at $3.3bn.
Founded in 2011, Scopely specialises in licensed games, having produced mobile game tie-ins to properties such as Marvel, Star Trek, The Walking Dead, the WWE and Looney Tunes. It will use the cash for strategic acquisitions as it looks to expand its line of games.
There were other interesting deals in emerging media-focused businesses that received financial backing from corporate investors in the same and other sectors.
Hopin, the US-based developer of a virtual events platform, hiked its valuation to $5.65bn in a $400m series C round featuring enterprise software provider Salesforce’s corporate venturing subsidiary, Salesforce Ventures. VC firms IVP, Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst co-led the round, which included Coatue, DFJ Growth, Northzone and Tiger Global Management. Sriram Krishnan, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, is joining the company’s board of directors. Hopin’s software enables users to create immersive virtual live events using video and interactive tools. It was founded in June 2019.
Fanatics, the US-based sports memorabilia retailer backed by SoftBank and e-commerce firm Alibaba, secured $350m in series E funding. Investment and financial services group Fidelity co-led the round with venture capital firm Thrive Capital. It included Franklin Templeton and Neuberger Berman and valued Fanatics at $6.2bn. Fanatics’ e-commerce platform sells a range of apparel and memorabilia spanning several American and international sports, and has also branched out into esports items.
Digital payment processor Square agreed to pay $297m in cash and stock for a majority stake in Tidal, a US-based music streaming service backed by SoftBank. Square will own a “significant” majority stake in the business once the transaction closes, while existing artist shareholders will remain shareholders. Founded in 2014, Tidal operates a subscription-based music service that offers studio-level audio quality. Its catalogue consists of more than 70 million songs with a focus on exclusive content, and the service is available to consumers in more than 56 countries. The company was bought and relaunched by rapper Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z, in 2015, before SoftBank’s mobile carrier subsidiary, Sprint, purchased a 33% stake two years later for a reported $200m.
Consumer electronics and media group Sony Corporation invested $250m in Epic Games, a US-based video game developer backed by corporate investors Tencent, Walt Disney and Axiomatic, at a reported valuation of nearly $17.9bn. Epic has created a series of games based on its multiplayer first-person shooting game engine, Unreal Engine. The most popular is Fortnite, which had generated in excess of $4bn of revenue by the end of 2019. Houseparty, the social mobile gaming app it bought in June 2019, had its user numbers balloon during lockdown.
US-based sales management software provider Highspot secured $200m at a $2.3bn valuation, in a series E round that included management consulting firm Bain & Company and enterprise software producer Salesforce. Hedge fund manager Tiger Global Management led the round, which included Iconiq Growth, Madrona Venture Group, OpenView Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures and Shasta Ventures. Salesforce invested through CVC unit Salesforce Ventures. Highspot has built an AI and data-enhanced platform that helps sales representatives manage customer relations, leads and accounts.
US-based sports media company Pocket Outdoor Media completed a $150m series B round featuring Zone 5 Ventures, the venture capital firm funded by bicycle component producer Specialized Bicycle. Sequoia Heritage, the community investment platform formed by VC firm Sequoia Capital, led the round, which included Jazz Ventures and Next Venture. Founded in 2017, Pocket Outdoor provides a media offering focused on active lifestyles and adventure sports that spans web, print, social media, video content and podcasting. The company has also bought, or agreed to acquire, adventure media company Outside Integrated Media, adventure sports producer Outside TV, event registration software developer AthleteReg, cycling magazine publisher Peloton and mapping app developer Gaia GPS.
Internet technology provider Google and investment firm Mithril Capital supplied $145m for Glance, the Singapore-based owner of social video streaming platform Roposo, at a valuation it told Mint was above $1bn. Roposo, a short-form video platform that has more than 33 million monthly active users, broadcasting personalised content on the lockscreens of Android phones in 10 languages including English, Hindi and Tamil.
US-based customer messaging software provider Podium raised $125m in a series C round backed by human resources provider Recruit and GV, an investment subsidiary of Alphabet. Startup accelerator YC Combinator’s Continuity fund led the round, participating alongside venture capital firms IVP, Accel and Sapphire Ventures, growth equity firm Summit Partners and investment adviser Alkeon Capital. It reportedly valued Podium at about $1.5bn. The company provides a range of software tools enabling businesses to interact with their customers, receive feedback or close payments, having originally concentrated on a platform that helped them secure customer reviews. The company’s offering is used by 45,000 businesses and it will use the funding to launch a free version of its product that will enable clients to interact with customers entirely through messaging.
Exits
Corporate venturers from the media sector completed 71 exits between April 2020 and March 2021 – 52 acquisitions, nine initial public offerings (IPOs), five mergers, four other transactions and one stake sale.
As for year-on-year, the transaction volume went up slightly from 59 to 63 between 2019 and 2020, while the estimated dollar value plummeted $14.32bn to $4.28bn, representing a nearly 70% drop.
Cazoo, the UK-based online automotive marketplace that counts media group DMGT as an investor agreed a reverse merger with special purpose acquisition company Ajax I. The combined company will take on the New York Stock Exchange listing obtained by Ajax through its $750m initial public offering in October 2020. The deal is boosted by $800m in private investment in public equity (PIPE) financing at a $7bn valuation.
Ajax’s sponsors and D1 Capital Partners are anchoring the PIPE, which includes investment and financial services group Fidelity, Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global unit, Altimeter, Marcho Partners, Mubadala Capital, Pelham Capital, Senator Investment Group, Spruce House Partnership and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock. Cazoo operates an e-commerce platform for customers in the UK, Germany, France and Portugal to buy and sell vehicles. The company has also built a monthly car subscription business by buying Drover and Cluno.
Li Auto, a China-based electric vehicle (EV) producer backed by several corporates, priced its shares at $11.50 to raise $1.1bn in its IPO. Previous corporate backers include digital media company Bytedance, mobile services portal Meituan Dianping, steel producer Shougang, department store chain I InTime, insurance firms Taiping and Ping An as well as pump and gardening equipment maker Leo Group. The company issued 95 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs), representing 190 million ordinary shares. Shares opened at $15.50 on the first day of trading and reached a high of $17.50, before closing at $16.46. The company listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market using the ticker symbol LI. Meituan Dianping and Bytedance committed to purchasing $330m and $30m in a concurrent private placement.
Founded in 2015, Li Auto has developed a hybrid electric sports utility vehicle, Lixiang One. It had reportedly received almost 10,000 pre-orders for the vehicle.
Edge computing platform provider Fastly agreed to purchase US-based web cybersecurity technology developer Signal Sciences in a $775m cash-and-stock transaction, allowing media company O’Reilly to exit. The deal was made up of $200m in cash and $575m in shares of Fastly, which had a market capitalisation of roughly $9.7bn at the time.
Signal Sciences is the creator of a programmable cybersecurity product designed to protect web applications. Its technology is used on more than 40,000 applications and its customers include Twilio, SendGrid and DoorDash. The company’s technology will enhance Secure@Edge, a product Fastly intends to launch that will help businesses securely pursue digital transformation.
China-based online answer platform developer Zhihu went public in a $523m IPO representing an exit for video-sharing app developer Kuaishou, internet companies Tencent, Baidu and Sogou as well as insurance firm Sunshine Insurance. The offering consisted of 55 million ADSs, each representing half a common share, priced at $9.50 each, at the foot of the IPO’s $9.50 to $11.50 range. The company floated on the New York Stock Exchange, alongside a $250m private placement consisting of $30m from Tencent, $100m each from e-commerce groups Alibaba and JD.com, and $20m from video game developer Lilith Games. Zhihu runs an online platform with 76 million monthly active users who can post questions to crowdsource answers. It more than doubled its revenue to $207m in 2020 while cutting its net loss from $150m to $79.3m.
US-headquartered online education provider Coursera floated in a $519m IPO, representing an exit for media conglomerate Bennett, Coleman & Co and education provider Laureate Education. The company issued nearly 14.7 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange while shareholders divested more than 1 million of their shares. They were priced at the top of the IPO’s $30 to $33 range, giving it a market capitalisation of nearly $4.3bn.
Coursera’s online platform offers educational content on a range of subjects, enabling adult learners to acquire new skills and improve their knowledge. It increased revenue 59% to $294m in 2020, though its net loss also went up, from $48.4m to $66.6m.
Public relations and marketing services provider Cision agreed to acquire its portfolio company Brandwatch, a UK-based developer of a social media monitoring and content marketing analytics software, for $450m. Brandwatch’s platform uses artificial intelligence technology to provide insights to consumer brands and marketing agencies on their social media interactions with the public. It also provides analytics tools as well as consumer data and market research. The company said its product has supported more than 2,000 brands and agencies globally.
Evolv Technology, a US-based touchless screening technology developer backed by corporates Motorola Solutions and Stanley Black & Decker, agreed a reverse takeover with special purpose acquisition company NewHold Investment Corp. The deal will give the merged company a post-transaction pro forma enterprise value of $1.25bn and the spot on the Nasdaq Capital Market taken by NewHold when it floated in a $150m initial public offering in August 2020.
Communications equipment maker Motorola Solutions, Magnetar Capital, Eldridge, Senator Investment Group, UBS O’Connor and various individuals are backing a $300m PIPE financing deal that will support the merger. Founded in 2013 and spun out of Duke University, Evolv provides touchless security screening systems that use its proprietary AI technology.
Automotive remarketing technology provider KAR Auction Services agreed to buy BacklotCars, the operator of an online automotive reselling platform, in a $425m deal that will enable social media company Renren to exit. The acquisition is intended to strengthen KAR’s online auction platform, TradeRev.
Founded in 2015, BacklotCars is the owner of an online dealer-to-dealer marketplace for second-hand vehicles, allowing companies such as rental services and dealers to buy and sell cars without having to travel. Inspections are carried out by trained mechanics it employs.
Media group Bertelsmann and entertainment producer Walt Disney will exit US-based podcast publishing studio Wondery after it agreed to be acquired by e-commerce and technology group Amazon. The deal was reportedly sized at about $300m. Wondery will join Amazon’s on-demand audio content streaming subsidiary, Amazon Music, once the deal closes. Founded in 2016, Wondery runs a US-focused podcast production studio that commissions audio fiction and documentaries for distribution through its podcasting app and third-party affiliates. Amazon Music will maintain Wondery’s presence on content marketplaces other than its own but hopes to attract more listeners to its own podcasting facility, which launched in September 2020.
China-based education software provider 17 Education & Technology Group floated in the United States in an IPO sized at almost $288m that enabled digital media group ByteDance to exit. The company issued 27.4 million ADSs, each of which represented 40% of an ordinary share, priced at $10.50 each, in the middle of the IPO’s $9.50 to $11.50 range. Also known as 17Zuoye, 17EdTech combines in-class learning software that use data to drive learning and assessment products, in addition to large-class online tutoring services that use AI to offer personalised learning.
Global Corporate Venturing also reported several exits of emerging media-related enterprises that involved corporate investors from the same as well as other sectors.
Cloud-based enterprise software producer Salesforce agreed to acquire Slack, the US-based publicly listed communication platform which previously counted SoftBank, Alphabet and media group Comcast among its backers. The transaction was sized at $27.7bn, $26.8bn cash and the remainder in Salesforce shares.
The latter plans to leverage the platform as the new interface for its application and customer identity management tool, Salesforce Customer 360, and expand it into a platform that enables employees, customers and partners to communicate through existing workflows.
Founded in 2009, Slack runs an enterprise messaging platform with about 12 million daily active users. The covid-19 pandemic forcing a large number of employees around the globe to work remotely gave it a boost. The company went public in a direct listing in June 2019, bypassing an expensive IPO.
Online dating platform Match Group agreed to acquire South Korea-based online communication technology provider Hyperconnect for roughly $1.73bn. The transaction, which involves cash and stock, would give SoftBank an exit. The latter committed capital to the company in its $8.6m series A round almost six years ago.
Launched in 2014, Hyperconnect runs a one-on-one video and audio chatting app dubbed Azar, which has been downloaded more than 540 million times, and Hakuna Live, a group livestreaming app featuring augmented reality avatars. The latter has been downloaded more than 23 million times. The company says it has reached profitability, after generating more than $200m in revenue during 2020.
Appier, a Taiwan-based enterprise software tool developer backed by Japan-listed SoftBank, raised ¥29.8bn ($271m) in an IPO on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Appier’s shares were priced at ¥1,600 each in the IPO and closed up 19% at ¥1,900 at the end of first day. SoftBank owned 4.4% of Appier, according to regulatory filings. Founded in 2012, Appier operates AI platforms that analyse and predict user behaviour in real time to enable personalised advertising campaigns. The company hopes to strengthen its market position in Asia before expanding into additional territories.
Video game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software agreed to buy US-based mobile gaming studio Playdots in a $192m deal, allowing Tencent to exit. The transaction consisted of $90m in cash and $102m in newly issued shares in Take-Two. The company expects the acquisition to strengthen and diversify its casual mobile gaming portfolio. Founded in 2013, Playdots designs minimalist puzzle games for mobile devices. Its three games – Dots, Two Dots and Dots & Co – have been downloaded more than 100 million times.
Strawbear Entertainment Group, a China-based television producer that counts online streaming platform iQiyi as an investor, floated on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in a HK$975m ($126m) IPO. The company issued 166 million shares priced at HK$5.88 each. They opened trading at HK$7.00 each and closed at $10.80. E-commerce platform developer Vipshop, Snow Lake Capital and IDG’s Origin Flair subsidiary were among the anchor investors for the offering.
Founded in 2014, Strawbear develops, produces and distributes drama series for television and online viewing, and will channel the proceeds from the IPO into production activities.
BlueCity Holdings, the China-based owner of gay dating app Blued, floated in an $84.8m IPO, enabling corporates New World Development and China Mobile Games and Entertainment to exit. The company priced 5.3 million ADSs, each representing two common shares, at $16.00 each, at the mid-point of the IPO’s $15 to $17 range. Its shares closed at $25.99 on the Nasdaq Global Market, valuing it at approximately $462m. Blued’s app has more than 49 million registered users and averages 6 million monthly active users. About $30m of the IPO proceeds will go to an international growth drive that will include spending on marketing and promotion. Another $22.5m will support technology upgrades in areas such as AI technology and big data.
NeoGames, a Luxembourg-registered, Israel-headquartered digital lottery software provider backed by betting firm William Hill, raised $81.7m in its IPO. The company issued nearly 2.63 million shares on the Nasdaq Global Market while its shareholders divested a further 2.18 million. They were priced at $17.00 each, above the IPO’s $14 to $16 range. Spun off by online gaming technology provider Aspire in 2014, NeoGames offers technology that enables lottery operators to sell tickets and run specialist games online. The company’s revenue declined year on year from $35.2m to $24.1m in the first nine months of 2020, with a corresponding $4m profit turning to a $3.3m net loss.
Canada-based mobile game developer Iugo Mobile Entertainment agreed to an acquisition by video game holding company Embracer Group’s Deca Games subsidiary that will allow Gree to exit. Japan-based Gree made a minority investment of undisclosed size in Iugo in 2012, after it opened its first North American office the previous year. The size of the deal was not disclosed but Embracer bought the company through a mixture of cash and shares.
Founded in 2003, Iugo develops free-to-play mobile games and is the co-creator and developer of The Walking Dead: Road to Survival, which has been installed more than 45 million times since its release in 2015. The company has also worked with global publishing partners on titles such as Middle-Earth: Shadows of War and Knights & Dragons.
Funding Initiatives
For the period between April 2020 and March 2021, corporate venturers and corporate-backed VC firms investing in the media sector secured $2.77bn in capital via 20 funding initiatives, which included 13 VC funds, three new or refunded venturing units, three accelerators and one other initiative.
On a calendar year-to-year basis, the number of funding initiatives in the media sector went up slightly from 24 in 2019 to 26 registered by the end of last year. Total estimated capital, however, more than doubled from $1.67bn in 2019 up to $3.42bn in 2020.
B China-based diversified conglomerate Bloomage International Group anchored a culture and sports-focused fund with a RMB10bn ($1.43bn) target. Alan Asset Management Company (Alan AMC), an investment firm formed in 2016 by financial services firm Hana Financial Group’s Hana Bank and Hana Financial Investment subsidiaries and women’s apparel brand Lancy, is also a cornerstone investor. Bloomage was founded in 1989 and operates in two main business areas: culture and sports, and cosmetics and healthcare. The company’s asset portfolio includes sports stadiums such as Wukesong Arena, the 2008 Summer Olympics basketball venue and the 2022 Winter Olympics ice hockey site. The vehicle will seek out investment opportunities in top-tier cities in China.
Germany-headquartered venture capital firm HV Capital announced a €535m ($625m) eighth fund that featured publishing group Holtzbrinck among its limited partners (LPs). HV Capital was founded in 2000 as Holtzbrinck’s corporate venturing unit before being spun off in 2010, and it said the latest fund brings its assets under management to about $2bn.
The vehicle was revealed alongside its rebranding from Holtzbrinck Ventures. The firm is expanding its investments through Fund VIII, which will allow it to back companies at a later stage, primarily through series B and C rounds. It will also look to supply up to €50m for later-stage portfolio companies.
The fund was also backed by institutional investors such as pension funds and university endowments in addition to private investors including the founders of several HV Capital portfolio companies. The growth investments team will be led by general partner (GP) Christian Saller, who said: “The core of our investment strategy continues to be investing in the most promising digital startups in their early stages, (seed and series A), and then support them throughout their growth.
US-based VC firm Bitkraft Ventures closed its second fund at $165m with backers including apparel producer Adidas, media group Advance Publications, computer peripherals manufacturer Logitech and advertising group WPP. Family office Carolwood and investment firms Declaration Partners and JS Capital are also among the LPs for the fund, which had an initial target size of $125m for its close.
Bitkraft Ventures Fund I will target early-stage deals in gaming, esports and interactive media. It has already begun investing and, with Bitkraft’s Pre-Seed Fund, has built a portfolio of more than 50 companies across North America, Europe and Asia. The firm’s portfolio includes Venn, the gaming and esports streaming network also backed by Bertelsmann, and 3D game developer Manticore Games, which has entertainment and talent services provider Roc Nation as an investor.
China-based venture capital firm BA Capital closed a second yuan-denominated fund at RMB1bn ($147m) with the help of unnamed internet and consumer products firms. Unnamed funds of funds provided around 60% of the capital. BA Capital invests only in the consumer products and media sectors and has a total of 15 brands since its debut in 2016.
The move came weeks after BA Capital raised a $100m dollar-dominated fund in September 2020. Details of this earlier vehicle could not be confirmed. BA Capital’s portfolio encompasses bubble tea bar chain Heytea, yoga products supplier Simple Love
and beverage company Yuan Qi Sen Lin.
US-based talent agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) formed an investment vehicle with VC firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) that was launched with $100m in capital. Connect Ventures will leverage CAA’s relationships in sports and entertainment industries, and it reportedly plans to invest up to $400m through the venture. The fund is run by Rick Yang, the NEA GP and the firm’s head of consumer investing. CAA’s end will be overseen by its new head of consumer investments, Michael Blank. The first startup to receive funding from Connect Ventures was Spire Animation Studios, a US-based animation studio co-founded by Brad Lewis, the producer of Pixar feature Ratatouille.
Japan-basedVC firm Genesia Ventures closed its second fund at roughly ¥8bn ($76.3m), with several corporates as LPs. Canal Ventures, Canon Marketing Japan, Hakuhodo DY Ventures, Mizuho Capital, Oriental Land Innovations and TFHD Open Innovation Program invested on behalf of IT services firm Nihon Unisys, imaging technology producer Canon, marketing firm Hakuhodo DY, financial services firm Mizuho Financial Group, theme park operator Oriental Land Company and property developer Tokyu Fudosan Holdings respectively.
Printing services firm Dai Nippon Printing, digital media company Gree, retailer Marui Group and internet company Mixi were also among the LPs, as were brokerage Aizawa Securities, leasing services firm JA Mitsui Leasing, state-owned Development Bank of Japan and Mizuho Financial Group’s Mizuho Bank and Mizuho Securities Principal Investment subsidiaries.
Founded in 2016, Genesia Ventures invests in and partners seed and early-stage companies that are based in Japan and Southeast Asia. The second fund will have a similar focus to its predecessor and will concentrate on software-as-a-service, e-commerce, augmented and virtual reality technologies among others.
Japan-headquartered television shopping group Japanet launched a $50m CVC fund in partnership with US-based venture capital firm Pegasus Tech Ventures. The latter will manage the fund, which will invest in North America, aIsrael, Europe and Asia. It will also seek out startups that could help Japanet build its planned Stadium City complex in Nagasaki, Japan.
Centred on a sports stadium due to open in 2024, the Stadium City project includes the development of mixed-use facilities. Pegasus Tech already runs funds for 35 companies including chemicals producer Taiyo. The corporations will have access to more than 180 Pegasus portfolio companies, such as SpaceX, 23andMe, SoFi, Bird, Color and App Annie.
US-based venture capital firm Hustle Fund has raised $33.6m for its second fund from LPs including messaging platform developer Line. The Japan-headquartered firm reupped in Hustle Fund II through corporate Line Ventures having committed to the first fund, which closed in September 2018 at about $11m. Hustle Fund II’s other LPs include investment firms Foundry Group Next and Shanda Group.
The second fund, managed by co-founders Eric Bahn, Elizabeth Yin and Shiyan Koh, is expected to invest in about 200 early-stage portfolio companies. Hustle Fund I backed 101 startups, writing initial cheques of $25,000, with about 25% receiving $250,000 to $500,000 in additional capital. About 38% of its portfolio companies have at least one female co-founder and 17% have a black or Latinx co-founder.
Japan-headquartered internet company Mixi has closed a ¥3bn ($28.9m) live entertainment digital transformation vehicle dubbed Mixi Entertainment Fund I. The vehicle will concentrate on digitalisation technology in theatrical production, and sports and music events. Mixi intends to invest up to roughly $96m in this area, including the fund.
Founded in 1997 as an employment platform called Find Job and later renamed e-Mercury, the company pivoted ito social networking in 2004 and eventually rebranded to Mixi. It had been conducting corporate venturing through its i-Mercury Capital, which was formed in 2013 with roughly $50m.
Japan-based theme park and tourism site operator Oriental Land Company (OLC) has formed a ¥3bn ($27.4m) corporate venturing vehicle, Oriental Land Innovations. Founded in 1960 by railway Keisei Group, OLC runs the Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea theme parks in Japan. The fund will invest in and partner developers of technologies and products related to OLC’s core entertainment and resort management businesses. The unit will be overseen by Rikiya Toyofuku, who managed OLC’s food business development group.
University
Over the past few years, we reported various commitments to university spinouts in the media sector through our sister publication, Global University Venturing. By the end of 2020, there were 24 rounds raised by university spinouts, up from the 20 and 21 registered in the previous two years. The level of estimated total capital deployed last year stood at $97m, down from $161m in 2019.
Soci, a US-headquartered retail brand reputation software publisher backed by Stanford University’s Daper Fund, completed an $80m series D round led by growth equity firm JMI Equity. Venture capital firm Ankona Capital provided a share of the capital, as did Afif Khoury, co-founder and chief executive of Soci, and Doug Winter, founder and chief executive of Seismic.
Founded in 2012, Soci runs a software platform used by more than 350 enterprises to organise online marketing targeted to local areas on platforms such as search engines and customer review websites. The software is equipped to help national chains vary their marketing output for individual outlets.
Soci claims to have added more than 100 new customers in 2020, which together operate 30,000 business locations. The funding is anticipated to support Soci’s growth plans through product development, strategic M&A activity and building up its sales and marketing operation.
Statespace, a US-based video game technique software producer spun out of New York University (NYU), secured $29m in a series B round that was led by VC firm Khosla Ventures.
The round also featured VC firm FirstMark Capital, which participated in a $15m series A round for the company in May 2020 that was also led by Khosla Ventures and included June Fund, Expa and Lux Capital.
Founded in 2017, Statespace has built a software platform called Aim Lab where esports players can hone their skills through training environments intended to assess their visual accuracy. Customers run the software through computer game marketplace Steam and are able to practice in a sandbox environment that replicates the way their chosen game is controlled.
Statespace was founded by Wayne Mackey, a postdoctoral fellow in the Computational Neuroimaging Lab at NYU.
US-based in-venue customer engagement platform UpShow closed a $14m series A round with a $4.8m extension led by 4490 Ventures, a venture firm aligned to University of Wisconsin-Madison. Signature Venture Banking Group, the VC arm of commercial banking firm Signature Bank, also participated in the series A round with Jump Capital and TDF Ventures. The last two co-led the initial $6m tranche in March 2019. 4490 Ventures is backed by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (Warf), the university’s commercialisation arm, which first contributed to 4490 Ventures in 2013.
UpShow supplies a technology to convert existing TV displays in venues such as retail and hospitality outlets into billboards. Visitors can also download a smartphone app to receive loyalty discounts and perks, although UpShow claims to divert less of the user’s attention to their phone than competing products from major tech firms that have their own digital advertising motives.
People
Amy Banse, executive vice-president of US-listed Comcast and head of funds for its corporate venturing unit, Comcast Ventures, will retire at the end of 2021. Mike Cavanagh, chief financial officer at Comcast, has taken over her role overseeing Comcast Ventures immediately. Banse, a Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist 2020 award winner, is now a senior adviser to Comcast’s executive leadership team.
Michael Angelakis, chairman and CEO of Atairos, will advise Cavanagh and Comcast Ventures on the organisation’s strategic and financial priorities during this transition period. Banse had began her career at Comcast in 1991 as an in-house attorney responsible for Comcast Cable’s acquisition of programming and content. For the past 10 years, Banse has led Comcast Ventures, expanding the team from Philadelphia to include offices in San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles, growing the portfolio to over 100 companies and a number of exits.
Hearst Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of US-headquartered media group Hearst, augmented its team with three appointments across offices in the US, UK and China. It promoted Kunal Mehta to principal at Hearst Ventures’ New York office. Mehta joined Hearst Ventures in early 2018 from New York University’s Innovation Venture Fund.
Jacqueline Cegla was been hired as senior associate at the unit’s London office, splitting her time between there and Tel Aviv focusing on deal flow across both countries. Cegla was an associate at venture capital fund MMC Ventures from late 2018, having previously spent about 18 months at BCG Digital Ventures, a corporate venturing and incubation vehicle for consulting firm Boston Consulting Group.
Hearst Ventures also hired Isabel Lo, in March last year, as an associate based at its Shanghai office. She had been senior investment associate at VC firm Amphora Capital that began in 2017. Lo began her career with Hearst China in 2015 as a venture intern before being promoted to corporate development analyst later the same year.
US-based media conglomerate Cowles promoted corporate controller Skye Henderson to investment manager at its corporate venture capital (CVC) unit, Cowles Ventures. Steve Rector, chief financial officer at Cowles, runs the CVC unit, which has invested about $85m over the past eight years, across 28 companies in the western United States. Henderson joined Cowles in late 2018, and his corporate controller position will be filled by Tom Brajcich, who has served as the company’s print media controller since early 2019.
Prosus Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Euronext-listed internet and e-commerce group Prosus, hired Sachin Bhanot to lead its investment activities in Southeast Asia. Spun off by South Africa-headquartered media and e-commerce group Naspers, Prosus has also taken on the portfolio of its largest investment vehicle, Naspers Ventures. Based in Singapore, according to his LinkedIn profile, Bhanot was a principal at B Capital Group, the VC firm backed by consulting firm Boston Consulting Group set up by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, for roughly two years.
Japan-based marketing firm Dentsu and its advertising business, Information Services International-Dentsu (ISID), established a US-based joint venture focusing on software engineering and minimum. Yu Hirayama, a general partner for Dentsu Ventures, was promoted to oversee ISID as president and chief executive while Kazuya Komon, vice-president of research and development at ISID America, to be its chief operating officer. The new company has specialised groups in areas including business development, design, software engineering and data analysis that will explore business trends, identify local partners, build software tools and carry out proofs of concept.
Daniel Gulati, managing director at Comcast Ventures, set up Forecast Fund as an early-stage venture fund investing $500,000 to $2m in consumer startups. Forecast was incubated within CV and Gulati, a Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars 2019 winner, said he would be managing the fund as founding partner and added: “I will continue to work with my existing portfolio companies and the CV team.” Forecast has been active since January 2020.
Daniel Broger, head of corporate development, strategy and mergers and acquisitions at Switzerland-listed industrial group Orell Füssli, left to be replaced by Désirée Heutschi, former CEO of consultancy Swiss Startup Factory. Founded 1519 as a book printer, Orell Füssli is a diversified industrial and trading group with activities including bank note and security printing and book retail. Heutschi took over from Broger as Orell’s new head of corporate development, and a member of its executive board, at the end of 2020. She has been CEO of Swiss Startup Factory since 2019 and had previously worked for Microsoft Switzerland for 14 years.
CyberAgent Capital (CAC), the corporate venture capital subsidiary of Japan-based internet company CyberAgent, has set up technical support and public relations support divisions.
The unit has appointed multiple sector specialists who will help its portfolio companies in different fields, including technical manager Rikuo Hayami, who was chief technology officer of CyberAgent’s now-defunct Bitcoin unit, search engine optimisation professional Ken Kimura and Takeshi Matsuoka, who will support technical organisation.
CyberAgent’s portfolio companies will receive help in legal support from Ryo Nagai, public relations help from Eri Shimodaira, organisational support from Tetsuhito Soyama and scientific assistance from Yusuke Narita, who had helped the parent company build an AI algorithm for advertisement distribution.
Sector specialist: Annabelle Long, founding and managing partner, Bertelsmann Asia Investments
Yu “Annabelle” Long is the founding and managing partner for Bertelsmann Asia Investments (BAI), the China-based corporate venturing arm for Germany-headquartered media group Bertelsmann.
Bertelsmann chairman and chief executive Thomas Rabe said: “Through [strategic] investments, we ensure the transfer of knowledge both about digital trends that support our transformation and about promising markets. Our investment fund BAI, in particular, is very successful.”
Having made more than 160 investments over the past decade since Long founded BAI in 2008, the group now manages more than $3bn. Long has led the team to more than 10 initial public offerings and some 20 unicorns.
Long is chief executive of the Bertelsmann China corporate centre and on the company’s group management committee, which advises the executive board on corporate strategy and development. She was presented the group-level Bertelsmann Entrepreneur Award and Bertelsmann Financial Performance Award for her outstanding contribution.
Long said: “BAI is one of the best-known and most successful funds in the Chinese investment scene at this point. We are pleased that, with such a small team, we have been able to make a sizeable contribution to a global media corporation like Bertelsmann.
“There is probably no other company at Bertelsmann that generates such a high profit per capita as the nine-member BAI team – and we are proud of that.”
Sector specialist: Jeffrey Li, managing partner, Tencent Investment
For the past decade, Zhaohui “Jeffrey” Li has been a managing partner at Tencent Investment and a general manager at Tencent M&A, subsidiaries of the largest internet, entertainment and gaming company dominating China’s artificial intelligence, enterprise, automotive and security industries.
Tencent Investment has made more than 800 investments encompassing consumer, education, financial, gaming and social media technologies. Li said in a WeChat statement last year: “In the post-covid-19 era, consumer psychology and behaviour will see great change.”
He added in April 2020 that the pandemic was different from the 1997 Asian financial turmoil and the 2008 global financial crisis. “The current market is still relatively stable, and the global economic liquidity is still within a reasonable range.”
In the post-pandemic era, China’s economic growth drivers are expected to shift from an export-oriented model to a domestic-demand approach, stimulating the overall upgrade of the industrial chain. Chinese consumer brands have become an important trend driving economic growth.
“Digital transformation will become a new trend in all walks of life,” Li continued, “enterprise services would be a new focus. In the US, to-business investments account for half of VC and PE deals; while in China, they are only a small portion compared with to-consumer ones.”
Sub-sector: social media
Netherlands-listed technology investor Prosus, which was formed out of the corporate venturing assets collected by South Africa-listed media group Naspers, has sold 2% of China-based gaming and social media group Tencent for $14.7bn.
This is the world’s largest-ever block trade –191.89 million shares for HK$114.1bn – but leaves Prosus still holding 28.9% of Tencent, according to newswire Reuters.
The block trade, the usually private, single trade of a large amount of securities, surpassed the previous record set in 2018 when Naspers also sold 2% of Tencent for $9.8bn, Refinitiv data showed. Its remaining stake is worth about $200bn, from an original $31m corporate venturing deal struck 20 years ago.
Bob van Dijk, chief executive at Prosus, said: “The proceeds of the sale will increase our financial flexibility, enabling us to invest in the significant growth potential we see across the group, as well as in our own stock.”
Prosus, which also invests in online food delivery platforms, classified marketplaces and digital payments businesses, has built up its war-chest for new and existing investments given the rapid scaling up of the later stage innovation capital ecosystem.
Global venture capital investments hit $125bn in the first quarter, the first time the figure has surpassed $100bn in a quarter, according to data published by Crunchbase, even though deal volumes held relatively stable.
The opportunity for social network or “platform economy” companies to dominate across sectors or verticals remains, especially as Tencent peer Alibaba’s share price rose in early April after it was able to have the term written into law.
This is particularly the case as finance becomes embedded into media. As James Thorne, a venture capital reporter at PitchBook, noted, Angela Strange, general partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), made the case in 2019 that most people would be working in financial services soon, even if we do not change jobs, as finance becomes embedded into software.
At that point, media and content becomes the differentiator, which is why A16Z calls itself a media company that monetises through venture capital.
In his annual letter, Jamie Dimon, chief executive at investment bank JPMorgan Chase, said: “Fintech’s ability to merge social media, use data smartly and integrate with other platforms rapidly (often without the disadvantages of being an actual bank) will help these companies win significant market share.
And this helps explain why even in a world where media advertising is dominated by Facebook and Google that there remains so much attention and focus on social media and networks.
Sub-sector: sports and gambling
Things are heating up in Italy’s media landscape as a microcosm of wider changes in the sports and gaming ecosystem. The country’s main phone operator, TIM, has returned as a “long-term investor in venture capital” through the anchor commitment to a €100m UV T-Growth fund managed independently by United Ventures, while Nerio Alessandri, founder and executive chairman of Italy-listed fitness equipment supplier Technogym, has launched Wellness Venture.
UV T-Growth, managed by Fabio Pirovano and Damiano Coletti, targets a wide swathe of digital innovation, including gaming. Similarly, Wellness is targeting digital projects in general but in particular in sports and fitness. A spokesman added it was “a joint venture between Technogym and TGH (majority Technogym shareholder) which aims at developing innovative technologies and business models in wellness, not necessarily by acquisition.”
There are plenty of opportunities in sports and gaming in the digital age. Online gambling and advertising, electronic as well as physical sports and gaming and unbundling of viewers from cable or television packages are coalescing to create plenty of disruption.
The latest is Amazon, which acquired Twitch for in-game streaming and chats, paying $11bn for exclusive rights to stream Thursday night National Football League games on its Prime service.
These are now dozens of VC funds targeting games, which is a far bigger market than films. Most recently, the Games Fund has raised $50m for a game-focused venture capital fund to invest in early-stage games in both Europe and the US, according to VentureBeat.
Maria Kochmola and Ilya Eremeev started the fund having both worked at Russia-listed internet group Mail.ru’s My.Games division, which started a game fund called MGVC, VentureBeat said. Kochmola was the investment director at MGVC since its inception in 2017, and she led more than 35 investments with six exits.
Sub-sector: audio and video
Twitch viewership doubled during lockdown to more than 6 billion hours. As well as seeing zombie battles or car chases as people played computer games – the traditional market for Twitchers – they tuned in watch people sit in front of their webcams and talk.
Video game live streaming may be the future of entertainment but, three years ago, Twitch spun off the talk-only feature into “Just Chatting” and once the coronavirus pandemic struck, the category exploded, according to Quartz. And audio more broadly has reaped the benefits.
Audio-only startup Clubhouse said it had raised yet another, undisclosed-size round of funding in mid-April.The Information reported Clubhouse reached a $4bn valuation three months after a round valuing it at $1bn.
It came even as larger social media players look to copy its model. Social network Facebook said it would allow users to post short-form audio clips called “soundbites”, host live audio rooms (as Clubhouse does), and discover podcasts through the Facebook platform, while tech company Apple has unveiled a subscription podcast service and audio streaming service Spotify is set to announce one.
But while there is excitement around audio and chat, the heavy content creation has been in video, despite the implosion at short-form content creator Quibi in October after raising $1.75bn in the previous two years.
Other content companies, such as Patreon and Masterclass, have also raised big rounds. But the potential comes when the content drives a marketplace that forms around it.
Come for the cat video or chat and stay to buy something has long been the strategy for media.
Sub-sector: virtual and augmented reality
Apple has introduced AirTag, “a small and elegantly designed accessory that helps keep track of and find the items that matter most with Apple’s Find My app”.
AirTags also go beyond being a helpful way to find your keys or wallet by being potentially an important link into the metaverse – the symbiotic joining of physical and virtual worlds.
Once you can connect people and things in the physical world beyond images taken from satellites then it becomes easier to create the equivalent of digital twins in the virtual one.
Mixed, augmented or virtual reality is already here as the industry moves from the trough of disillusionment after years of earlier hype. Surgeons have been using the Microsoft HoloLens in operating theatres since 2018, while cyclists can use Raptor, a combination of a cycling computer and an AR system.
And the deals are starting to flow again. Holoride, a two-year-old, mixed reality in-vehicle media platform spinoff from car maker Audi last week raised €10m in its series A round led by Sweden-based software development company Terranet.
The GCV Analytics definition of the media sector encompasses audio and video content, games, gaming and esports, social media networks and instant messaging services, print and online publishing, sports entertainment and gambling, virtual and augmented reality content and other media products and services.