Credo Ventures is a venture capital company focused on early stage investments in Central and Eastern Europe. It is on a mission to identify and back the most interesting early stage companies in the region, support them in their growth plans (including expansion to the U.S. / global market), and help to achieve their objectives. The company is looking for opportunities to invest in high-growth potential companies with international ambitions and competence to execute and deliver. Credo's industry focus is IT, Internet, and health.

Credo Ventures

GFR Fund is a San Francisco-based venture capital fund that invests in early-stage startups that are disrupting the consumer entertainment industry. GFR Fund is managed by GREE VR Capital, an affiliate of GREE Inc., a global leader in the mobile gaming industry. With over a decade of experience driving innovators in multi-platform entertainment, we see emerging technologies such as VR, AR, AI, Video Streaming and Blockchain as powerful tools that will propel the entertainment industry into a new generation of consumable content. We are looking for talented entrepreneurs who share our passion and values to help realize their vision and expand their businesses globally.

GFR Fund

Kearny Jackson is investing in early stage technology companies.

Kearny Jackson

Roosh Ventures is an entrepreneurs-led VC firm with offices in Kyiv, Paris, and London. Taking on a co-investment-only approach, the firm invests from Pre-seed to Series A across various sectors with a slight focus on enterprise SaaS, fintech, gaming, and AI-driven products in the EU and US markets. Since its launch in 2020, the firm has already backed stars such as Deel, TheGuarantors, Oura, Pipe, Alma, Playco, Dapper Labs, Arkis, and 35+ other companies. Part of Roosh Investment Group, Roosh Ventures drives growth and success for portfolio companies by providing tailored support in AI/ML strategy planning and implementation, mobile app growth insights, B2B gaming sales expertise, and comprehensive assistance in talent acquisition, fundraising, legal consulting, and public relations. For more about Roosh Ventures and its portfolio companies, visit roosh.vc.

Roosh Ventures

Spacecadet is The Marketing VC, investing in Spacecadets building moonshots and helping tell their stories.

Spacecadet Ventures

Treble is an early-stage consumer internet investor.

Treble

1337

The best platform for digital influencers.

1337 (Leet) is a platform that revolutionizes content creation by combining human creativity with AI power, focusing on connecting niche communities through hyper-personalized interests.

Harnessing the power of social influence to fuel online sales

Social Commerce

1337 Emerges from Stealth with $4M to Build an Ecosystem of AI-driven Micro Influencers

1337 (Leet) is a platform that revolutionizes content creation by combining human creativity with AI power, focusing on connecting niche communities through hyper-personalized interests.The company has introduced an ecosystem of AI-powered micro-influencers called “Entities.” These Entities possess distinctive skills and interests with the goal of linking, educating, and motivating specialized online communities. As of October 2023, 1337 has launched 50 fresh Entities in a beta phase and established a worldwide creator community to collectively design upcoming Entities. Using its AI-driven Entities, 1337 promotes an open-source-inspired strategy, encouraging individuals to interact with creators, brands, and one another in a cooperative manner.

Hootsuite is a social media management platform that allows users to schedule, publish, monitor, and analyze social media content across multiple networks from a unified dashboard. Its key product offerings include content scheduling tools, social media monitoring and analytics, team collaboration features, social listening capabilities, and integrations with various social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Hootsuite's core functionality revolves around the ability to streamline social media management processes by centralizing various social media activities into a single platform. Its scheduling tools enable users to plan and queue content for publishing across different social networks, while its monitoring features facilitate tracking brand mentions, competitor activities, and audience engagement. The platform's analytics tools provide insights into social media performance, aiding users in understanding the effectiveness of their social media strategies.
Hootsuite also emphasizes team collaboration by allowing multiple users to access and manage social media accounts, assign roles and permissions, and implement approval workflows for content publishing. Additionally, its social listening capabilities enable users to monitor conversations, trends, and keywords relevant to their brand or industry.
While Hootsuite offers a free trial and a limited free plan, its more advanced features are available through paid subscription plans, with pricing tiers ranging from the Professional plan at USD 99 per month (billed annually) to the Enterprise plan tailored for larger organizations with custom pricing.

Hootsuite

GRIN is a comprehensive influencer marketing platform designed to help brands manage their influencer programs efficiently. It streamlines the entire process, from identifying and recruiting suitable influencers to facilitating product seeding, campaign management, content tracking, and performance reporting. GRIN's key features include a vast creator database, advanced search capabilities, Shopify integration for seamless product fulfillment, automated communication workflows, and robust analytics tools.
GRIN's platform allows brands to discover and connect with influencers across various social media channels, including Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. By leveraging GRIN's extensive database, brands can filter and search for influencers that align with their target audience and campaign goals. The platform's Shopify integration simplifies the process of sending products to influencers, creating trackable links, and generating discount codes.
Once influencers are on board, GRIN enables brands to create and manage campaigns, define deliverables, and automate communication sequences. The platform tracks influencer content, captures user-generated content (UGC), and provides detailed performance metrics, including engagement rates, conversions, and revenue generated. GRIN's reporting capabilities allow brands to analyze the success of their influencer campaigns and make data-driven decisions.
Key customers and partnerships
GRIN has collaborated with notable brands such as MVMT, a luxury watch company, Lume Cube, a specialty lighting brand, tentree, an apparel brand, Darn Good Yarn, Tubby Todd, and Hush Blankets. These partnerships demonstrate GRIN's ability to cater to diverse industries and support businesses in scaling their influencer marketing efforts.

GRIN

Bazaarvoice is a technology company that provides a Social Commerce AI suite, enabling brands to curate and showcase user-generated content across various social media platforms. Its flagship product, the Media Library, serves as a centralized hub for collecting, publishing, and managing social content from customers, influencers, partners, and the brand itself. This tool leverages AI-powered features to sort, tag, and prioritize high-performing media content, streamlining workflow and expediting legal approvals.
The company's Social Commerce AI suite offers a range of solutions to optimize social engagement and drive conversions. It generates on-brand photo captions, surfaces authentic user-generated content aligned with the brand's identity, and identifies top trends and themes for social media strategies. Bazaarvoice's Like2Buy solution allows brands to create shoppable Instagram and TikTok feeds, where visitors can browse products, read posts, and make purchases directly from the social storefront.
Additionally, Bazaarvoice's Showroom feature transforms photos and videos into interactive storefronts, enabling users to discover new products through visually appealing AI-powered experiences. This approach has proven effective, with 46% of Showroom visits converting to ecommerce sessions.
In terms of performance metrics, the company's solutions have demonstrated impressive results. Like2Buy visitors convert to ecommerce sessions at a rate of 59%, and these referred visitors tend to spend more time browsing, view more pages, and have higher average order values compared to average mobile consumers.

Bazaarvoice

NTWRK is a curated live video shopping platform that offers exclusive access to limited-edition products across various categories like sneakers, streetwear, collectibles, and more. It revolutionized the ecommerce industry by combining live streaming with online shopping, creating an engaging and interactive experience for consumers.
NTWRK's platform allows customers to watch live streams hosted by influencers, celebrities, or brand representatives who showcase and discuss the featured products. During these events, viewers can interact through live chat, ask questions, and make purchases seamlessly without leaving the video stream. This innovative approach provides transparency, fosters a sense of community, and creates a sense of urgency and exclusivity around the products on offer.
Since its inception in 2018, NTWRK has partnered with renowned artists, brands, and personalities such as Post Malone, Lewis Hamilton, BLACKPINK, and Takashi Murakami, offering their fans unprecedented access to exclusive collaborations and limited releases. The company has been at the forefront of the live stream shopping industry, which is estimated to reach USD 68 billion in sales by 2026 in the US alone.
In February 2024, NTWRK acquired the popular youth culture media company Complex, marking a significant step in its evolution. By merging Complex's content and reach with NTWRK's ecommerce platform, the combined entity aims to create a comprehensive digital hub for "superfan" culture, encompassing commerce, digital media, and music.
Key customers and partnerships
Through its strategic partnership with Universal Music Group (UMG), NTWRK gained access to industry-leading music labels like Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA) and Capitol Music Group. This collaboration allows NTWRK to deliver exclusive collaborations and cultural experiences directly to passionate music fans, deepening the connection between artists and their audiences.
Notable partnerships include exclusive collaborations with BLACKPINK x Murakami and the Interscope 30th Anniversary vinyl collection, featuring dialogues between visual artists like Damien Hirst, Kehinde Wiley, and Ed Ruscha, and iconic Interscope artists from the past three decades.

NTWRK

ShopShops is a live-shopping platform that allows hosts to showcase and sell products in real-time to viewers through livestreaming. The company primarily focuses on the fashion and lifestyle segment, offering pre-owned luxury and designer brands. ShopShops' business model involves connecting retail brands with creators, referred to as hosts, who can represent and sell the brands' products through live video sessions.
The platform operates as a three-sided marketplace, facilitating the interaction between brands, hosts, and consumers. Brands can hire hosts on an hourly or event basis to showcase their products during live streams, providing a personalized shopping experience to viewers. This approach aims to bridge the gap between traditional retail and ecommerce by replicating an offline shopping experience online.
ShopShops initially launched in China in 2017 and observed consumer behavior similar to the early adoption phase of live shopping in that market. The company entered the US market in 2022, recognizing the growth potential as American consumers become more receptive to this shopping format. ShopShops anticipates that by 2024, major US brands will incorporate live streaming into their marketing strategies, following a similar trajectory to the adoption of platforms like TikTok.
While live shopping in the US is expected to be more segmented across vertical categories compared to China's more centralized platforms, ShopShops believes its focus on the female fashion and lifestyle vertical positions it well for success. The platform aims to expand into other verticals such as home and arts in the future.

ShopShops

Platforms for creating, scheduling, and managing a brand or independent seller’s social media presence. A number of these platforms also provide AI-powered social listening and data analytics tools to gauge customer sentiment.

AI-powered tools for automatically monitoring and responding to customer queries across multiple social media channels.

Platforms for identifying and managing influencers to promote and sell products and services through social media.

Tools typically used by influencers to demonstrate and sell products and services via social media. The solutions are the digital equivalents of live teleshopping programs.

Platforms for curating and displaying customer reviews, recommendations, and product and service feedback on a brand or independent sellers' social media pages and websites.

Tools to create and implement instant shopping features to an image or video advertisement

Increases transparency of the effectiveness of social commerce by providing solutions for attribution and measurement

Relevant for social chatbots segment that uses AI/ML to provide automated responses to customers

Creates virtual assets for Metaverse stores and marketing on metaverse platforms

Social media platforms such as Snap are developing AR solutions for live shopping experiences

Exploring the limitless possibilities of AI

Generative AI Applications

<div>
 <ul>
 <li>1337, a company that connects niche communities using GenAI, has raised USD 4 million in a pre-seed round. The funding was led by Credo Ventures, GFR Fund, Treble Capital, and Roosh Ventures, with participation from Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue and impact investor Natalia Vodianova.</li>
 <li>The funding will be used to develop a scalable platform to expand the Entity ecosystem and grow the global creator community.</li>
 <li>1337 uses GenAI to facilitate connection between people and communities of similar interests through its unique Entities, which act as guides to inspire, educate, and connect niche communities online.</li>
 </ul>
</div> 

1337, a company that connects niche communities using GenAI, has raised USD 4 million in a pre-seed round. The funding was led by Credo Ventures, GFR Fund, Treble Capital, and Roosh Ventures, with participation from Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue and impact investor Natalia Vodianova. The funding will be used to develop a scalable platform to expand the Entity ecosystem and grow the global creator community. 1337 uses GenAI to facilitate connection between people and communities of similar interests through its unique Entities, which act as guides to inspire, educate, and connect niche communities online.

1337

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