– Ntwrk, a livestream shopping platform that broadcasts 24/7 from a New York City storefront, has raised $50m.
– The round was led by the Goldman Sachs Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs), and global luxury group Kering.
– LionTree Partners and Tenere Capital also participated.

– Video is at the heart of how people use the internet today, and creators are at the heart of what is being made and watched on video.
– Today, a startup that has built a platform that helps them produce and monetize their work is announcing a big round of funding that underscores just how lucrative and big the creator economy has become.
– StreamElements, which provides production and analytics tools to people who livestream and make video-on-demand for platforms like Amazon’s Twitch, YouTube and Facebook, has raised $100m in funding — money that it will be using to continue building out the tools on its platform, to do more in on-demand alongside a big business in livestreaming and for marketing, specifically to bring more creators to its platform, which is already being used by 1.1m people.

– SmartNews, a news aggregation website and app, raised $230m in Series F funding.
– The round was led by Princeville Capital and Woodline Partners, and joined by JIC Venture Growth Investments, Green Co-Invest Investment, and Yamauchi-No.10 Family Office in Japan.
– Existing investors participated in this round including ACA Investments and SMBC Venture Capital.
– The company plans to develop more features for its U.S. audience that will focus on consumer health and safety.

– Betsperts Media & Technology Group is a Chicago, IL-based sports betting and fantasy sports media company.
– The company raised $6M in Series A funding.
– The round was led by new investors HBSE Ventures and Verance Capital with participation from previous investors such as Parlay Capital Holdings, LLC, Velo Partners, David VanEgmond (Current Founder and CEO of Bettor Capital), and various other angel investors.
– The new investment will be used for product development and expansion into new markets.

– Chalkline (formerly Chalkline Sports) from Nashville develops a B2B customer acquisition and retention platform for freeplay and real money games.
– Company raised $2.7m in Series A funding.
– The round was led by Parlay Capital Holdings and Patrick Conroy with participation from Afshin Yazdian; Andrew Braitchouk, Group Finance Director at Sports Media Interactive; and Clay Travis of Fox Bet Live and Outkick.
– The new investment will be used to bolster product development and commercial momentum.

– Launch House has raised $3 million in Seed funding.
– Launch House brings together emerging leaders in the startup and entertainment worlds to live in illustrious mansions around the world.
– Launch House plans to double-down on its community with Season 2, which includes the expansion of the physical Residency program to cities around the globe and launching a Virtual Residency.
– Launch House Creators command audiences totaling over 100M.

– memmo.me is a Stockholm, Sweden-based platform which allows users to book personalised video messages from sportspeople, celebrities, actors, and musicians.
– The company raised a further €10.25M in funding.
– Backers include Luxor Capital, FJ Labs (marketplace fund founded by Fabrice Grinda), Spencer Rascoff (co-founder of Zillow Group), Maria Raga (CEO of shopping app Depop), Inbal Leshem (former Operations Director at Groupon), Mats Diedrichsen (former CMO at Delivery Hero), Geoff Cook (CEO of The Meet Group), Ted Chervin (Founding Partner and Board Member at talent agency ICM Partners), Mike Caren (CEO of Artist Partner Group and Creative Officer at Warner Music Group), Andrew Singer (President of Broadway Video Film & Television), Packy McCormick (Founder of the Not Boring newsletter and club), and Todd Lieberman (Partner and Co-Owner of Mandeville Films and Television).
– The company, which has now raised over €20M since being founded in 2019, will use the money to further expand internationally, including to Latin America, and develop new product features (including paid for social media interactions from celebrities).

– Smashcut is a Montclair, NJ-based digital learning platform and content studio.
– The company raised $7m in Series A funding.
– The round was led by Pearson Ventures.
– The new investment will be used to expand the company’s operations and business reach.

– Snipfeed, a link-in-bio business, raised $5.5m in seed funding.
– The round was led by CRV, Abstract Ventures, Crossbeam (Ali Hamed), id8, Michael Ovitz (founder of CAA), Michael Bosstick, Diaspora Ventures and others.
– The company plans to use the funding to expand its team and build out its product.

– Live Tech Games, a London, England-based live gaming tech startup, raised £2.5m in funding.
– ITV made the minority investment into the tech startup via the Studio 55 Ventures arm.
– The company intends to use the funds to work with ITV and the UK audience and to create new forms of entertainment direct to consumers’ mobile devices.

– V-Nova, a London, UK based high-growth company leader in the compression of video and image data, received an investment from Neva First, the alternative investment fund managed by Neva SGR.
– The company closed a €33m Series C funding round.
– The company intends to use the funds to bolster the commercial roll-out of its video compression software.

– Flymachine is a San Francisco, CA-based virtual venue for live entertainment which delivers an immersive social experience.
– The company closed $21m in funding.
– Greycroft Partners and SignalFire led the round, with participation from Primary Venture Partners, Contour Venture Partners, Red Sea Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank, as well as angels including music-industry luminaries Coran Capshaw, Bill Silva, Marty Diamond, and Larry Webman, Bay Area concert promoter Another Planet Entertainment, Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons, WIRED magazine co-founding editor John Battelle, and LionTree Partners.
– The company intends to use the funds to continue to grow its diverse team, expand its network of venue partners, and develop new features for its digital events platform.

– OneScreen.ai from Boston provides an OOH Market Network to compete offline with what Google and Facebook offer online.
– Series A $1M round was led by TechFarms Capital with participation from with participation from HubSpot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, Wayfund, Lola.com CEO Mike Volpe, BuySellAds.com CEO Todd Garland, HubSpot CMO Kipp Bodnar, HappyNest CRO Jeanne Hopkins.
– The new investment will be used to expand operations, accelerate growth and its business reach.

– WaitWhat from NYC is a media invention company.
– The company raised $12m in Series B funding.
– The round was led by Raga Partners with participation from Emerson Collective, Lupa Systems, Capital One Ventures, Maywic Select Investments, GingerBread Capital, Burda Principal Investments, Cue Ball Capital and Reid Hoffman.
– The new investment will be used to accelerate development of the company’s technology products, membership programs and partnerships that extend the core IP into multi-format media experiences.

– Illuminarium Experiences announced today it has received $100m in initial funding, with its newest significant investment from Eldridge.
– The commitment from Eldridge will support the launch of the first-ever Illuminarium in Atlanta, GA, opening July 1, 2021, as well as future global locations.
– Illuminarium’s immersive entertainment venues enable visitors to experience real world, filmed content and authentic, re-created worlds in an environment unlike any other.

– Fave, a social platform for fans and creators, raised $2.2m in seed funding.
– Female Founders Fund, HYBE, Sony Music, Warner Music, Concord Music, Quality Control, Right Hand Management, Techstars Music and Betaworks participated in the round.
– The company is all about the relationship between fans and creators.
– Fave is broken down by fandoms (starting with Swifties/Taylor Swift), allowing fans to connect with one another, create content and buy and sell fan-themed merchandise and artwork to one another.
– Fave’s go-to-market is focused on the fans themselves, though the hope is to also bring creators on to the platform, which ultimately gives them another revenue stream.

– Hidden Leaf Games is making a 3-on-3 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game.
– The team has raised $3.2m for its new game studio.
– CEO David Li and president Bao Lam founded this L.A.-based startup.
– Both are veterans from Riot Games, PUBG, and other studios.
– The design team’s led is Steve “Guinsoo” Feak, whose custom Warcraft III map DotA: All Stars helped define the MOBA genre and inspired smash hits such as League of Legends and Dota 2.
– They’re working on a new action MOBA called Fangs, which will have strategic real-time gameplay, a diverse roster of characters, and session-based rounds set in an arena.

– PreShow Interactive, a startup that provides gamers with virtual currency in exchange for watching ads, raised $3m in seed funding.
– The round was led by Harlem Capital and joined by Canaan Partners, Wavemaker Partners, Front Row Fund, ROC Fund, BK Fulton and Monroe Harris.
– The company is led by MoviePass’ founding CEO Stacy Spikes.

– Riverside.fm, a remote video and audio platform, raised $9.5m in Series A funding.
– The round was led by Seven Seven Six and featured Zeev-ventures.com, Casey Neistat, Marques Brownlee, Guy Raz, Elad Gil and Alexander Klöpping.
– The company plans to use the money to increase headcount and build out more features for the service.

– Patreon, a platform for creators and their most passionate fans, today announced it has raised $155 Million in Series F financing led by new investor Tiger Global Management, with participation from Woodline Partners and existing investors Wellington Management, Lone Pine Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Glade Brook Capital, and DFJ Growth.
– This investment comes as the number of creators continues to increase worldwide along with their desire to create deeper connections with their fans.
– The additional investment increases Patreon’s valuation to $4 billion.
– Patreon plans to use the additional funds to accelerate its progress on the initiatives identified in its Series E announcement, including enhanced creator and fan experiences on both desktop and mobile; International expansion; and new content consumption tools.
– The financing also allows Patreon to explore potential acquisitions to further expand its talent and product capabilities.

– UnitedMasters, an independent music distribution platform and tool factory, has raised a $50m Series B round led by Apple.
– A16z and Alphabet are participating again in this raise.
– United Masters is also entering a strategic partnership with Apple alongside this investment.

– Cameo has raised $100m in a Series C financing that values the company at over $1b.
– The financing was led by e.ventures, with participation from Origin Ventures, Softbank, Google Ventures, UTA Ventures, Amazon’s Alexa Fund, other institutional investors, and several celebrities, athletes, and entertainers including legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk.
– Previous investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Spark Capital, and The Chernin Group also participated.

– Ryu Games, a startup that helps developers add cash tournaments to their mobile games, announced this morning it has raised $2.3 million in a seed round.
– The funds came from a number of investors, including Side Door Ventures, MGV Capital, Velo Partners and Citta Ventures.
– In addition, 500 Startups participated in the round.
– TechCrunch first caught wind of Ryu during its participation in the most recent 500 Startups demo day.
– At the time, we were enthused by the idea of gamers wagering money to go head-to-head with other players on mobile devices.
– Investors appear to back our first impression of the company.

– Epidemic Sound is a Stockholm, Sweden-based platform for restriction-free music.
– The company raised $450m in funding at a $1.4b valuation.
– Backers included funds managed by Blackstone Growth and EQT Growth.
– The new investment will be used to expand the company’s business reach internationally to reach new creators in both existing territories like North America whilst also localizing its digital offering and to invest in the core user experience it offers.

– Splice is a New York-based provider of an AI-powered beat-making software platform for MUSIC producers.
– The company raised $55m in funding.
– Backers included Goldman Sachs and MUSIC, a joint venture between MUSIC executive Matt Pincus and Liontree.
– The company intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and its business reach.

– Memmo.me, a startup allowing users to pay celebrities for personalized video messages, is announcing that it has raised $10 million in Series A funding.
– The round was led by Left Lane Capital, with the firm’s founder and managing parter Harley Miller joining the Memmo board.
– Delivery Hero co-founder Lukasz Gadowski, FJ Labs, Depop CEO Maria Raga, Zillow co-founder Spencer Rascoff, former Groupon operations director Inbal Leshem, Voi Technology co-founder Fredrik Hjelm, former Udemy CEO Dennis Yang and Wolt co-founder Elias Aalto also participated.

– memmo.me is a Stockholm, Sweden-based provider of a video greeting platform that connects celebrities one-to-one with fans and businesses.
– The company raised $10M in Series A funding round.

– The data platform, which quietly joined Fearless Fund’s portfolio last fall, was founded by technology and diversity pioneer Angela Benton in 2018.
– Streamlytics unifies and protects the troves of data produced by consumers across their digital footprint.
– This investment marks a milestone in Fearless Fund’s efforts to not only support WOC-founded businesses but also close the gap between the minority women who account for 89% of new businesses opened every day and the less than 1 percent of WOC-businesses who receive funding.

– Zencastr, a podcasting startup, raised $4.6m in funding.
– The round was led by Upfront Ventures and joined by Greycroft, Lerer Hippeau, and others.
– The company plans to use the funding to expand its team and develop new features.