Rho Acceleration, a division of Rho Capital Partners, focuses on control or joint-control investments into ''transitional'' middle market technology companies, which we believe is a burgeoning yet underserved category in today's private equity markets.

Rho Acceleration

Allen & Company is a family-owned investment and advisory firm. The firm advises on M&A and capital raises, with an emphasis on the technology, media, healthcare, and sports sectors. Allen & Company was established in 1932 and is headquartered in New York, United States.

Allen & Company

American Public Media Group is engaged in public radio, theater rental, commercial radio, and publishing activities.   American Public Media Group is the largest owner and operator of public radio stations and a premier producer and distributor of public radio programming in the nation. It is also the largest producer and distributor of classical music programming in the United States.   The company operates station brands and services such as Minnesota Public Radio, which produces and acquires radio programming of community value for broadcast through a network of radio stations to the people of Minnesota and its border communities reflecting the culture, events, issues, and ideas of Minnesota and its people; Southern California Public Radio, which produces and acquires programs related to the people of Southern California and the United States, including the production and broadcast of local, West Coast, and Pacific Rim news and information programming; Fitzgerald Theater, which hosts various concerts, lectures, and productions; and Pretty Good Goods Catalog that sells program-related and psychographically-related goods to consumers.   The company also engages in printed communications activities primarily through the publication of Minnesota Monthly, an advertiser- and subscriber-supported monthly magazine as well as in various consumer show promotions. In addition, it offers community and commerce services to the public radio audience.   American Public Media Group has a strategic alliance with Radio Time, Inc. It was formerly known as Minnesota Communications Group and changed its name to American Public Media Group in May 1999. The company was incorporated in 1987 and is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

American Public Media

Progress Ventures is an early-stage investment fund focused exclusively on the emerging platforms in media and marketing technology. We partner with experienced entrepreneurs and commit capital to promising start-ups seeking to become active and integral pieces of the digital marketing and content ecosystem.

Progress Ventures

Cox Media Group is an integrated broadcasting, publishing, direct marketing and digital media company.    The company’s operations include television stations, radio stations, daily newspapers and more than a dozen non-daily publications.   The company employees over 7,000 people and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Cox Media Group

Cox Enterprises is a communications, media, and automotive services company. With revenues of $18 billion and approximately 60,000 employees, the company's major operating subsidiaries include Cox Communications (cable television distribution, high-speed Internet access, telephone, home security, and automation, commercial telecommunications, and advertising solutions); Cox Automotive (automotive-related auctions, financial services, media, and software solutions); and Cox Media Group (television and radio stations, digital media, newspapers, and advertising sales rep firms). The company's major national brands include Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book, and Manheim. Through Cox Automotive, the company's international operations stretch across Asia, Australia, Europe, and Latin America.

Cox Enterprises

Skyword

Skyword moves marketing leaders and those who create content for them forward. By embracing a sustainable, scalable approach to original storytelling, Skyword liberates brands from ineffective marketing practices and inspires them to create deeper connections with their audiences. The Skyword Platform makes it easy to produce, optimize, and promote content at any scale to create meaningful, lasting relationships. Skyword also provides access to a community of thousands of freelance writers and videographers, an editorial team, and program managers who help move clients’ content marketing programs to new levels of creative excellence. Skyword is a privately held company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with offices in Palo Alto, CA, and New York City. The company’s technology center is located in Pittsburgh, PA.   Investors include Cox Media Group, Allen & Company, Progress Ventures, and American Public Media Group.

Skyword offers an integrated offering consisting of a content marketing platform, content marketplace, and consultancy services for a content strategy. The company’s flagship product, Skyword360, is a content marketing platform that allows users to collect and discuss ideas from contributors, plan content calendars, and assign tasks. The company also offers data insights and analytics through its Skyword Intelligence solution.&nbsp;

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The Content Marketing Company

Skyword Harnesses AI to Make Multi-Channel Content Creation and Personalization Easier for Marketers

Creating affordable content for the digital age

Content Creation Tools

Original Research: Skyword Reveals Key Insights on Generative AI's Impact on Content Marketing

Skyword offers an integrated offering consisting of a content marketing platform, content marketplace, and consultancy services for a content strategy. The company’s flagship product, Skyword360, is a content marketing platform that allows users to collect and discuss ideas from contributors, plan content calendars, and assign tasks. The company also offers data insights and analytics through its Skyword Intelligence solution.&nbsp;In May 2024, Skyword launched AI-powered content optimization within its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/skywords-accelerator360-strengthens-seo-with-ai-powered-content-optimization-302143545.html">Accelerator360 tool,</a> enabling automated audit and enhancement of existing website content.As of September 2024, the company integrated its platform with various third-party tools and platforms, including Adobe, Seismic, and WordPress, among others.In October 2018, Skyword merged with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.skyword.com/press/skyword-and-trackmaven-join-forces-to-form-1-content-marketing-platform/">TrackMaven,</a> a marketing insights company, to enhance its content planning, creation, and activation process. Additionally, in September 2014, Skyword acquired video creation platform&nbsp;<a href="https://www.skyword.com/press/skyword-acquires-video-creation-platform-vidaao-freeing-marketers-break-moving-stories/">Vidaao</a> to enhance its video generation capabilities.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of September 2024, Skyword’s notable customers included Samsung, Colgate, Salesforce, Verizon, Mastercard, HP, Tom's of Maine, and MGM Resorts International.&nbsp;

Sydney-based Canva is an online graphic design platform that allows users without extensive design experience to create designs for social media, marketing materials, presentations, and more. It also provides tools for creating static graphics, presentations, videos, websites, and printed materials.The platform’s free version provides access to over 250,000 templates and a library of fonts, stock photography, illustrations, and graphics. Canva's paid plans offer additional features such as more storage, premium templates, and collaboration tools. In August 2024, Canva introduced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240808572035/en/Canva-Unveils-Refreshed-Brand-System-Designed-For-Work">a refreshed brand system</a> signaling its shift in focus to help organizations improve their visual communication, as businesses scale their operations globally.In March 2023, Canva introduced AI-powered tools that enable users to search for design elements, get recommendations for graphics and styles, and access AI-powered design tools such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.canva.com/magic-design/">Magic Write,</a> Magic Design, Magic Edit, and Beat Sync. The platform also introduced new features such as draw, layouts, styles, layers, and alt text support based on user requests. Previously, the company launched&nbsp;<a href="https://www.computerworld.com/article/1612736/canva-launches-whiteboards-for-graphic-designers-predesign-process.html">“Canva Whiteboards”&nbsp;</a>(August 2022), which allows users to brainstorm and collaborate with colleagues within the platform by integrating with Canva presentations.In July 2024, Canva&nbsp;<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/29/canva-acquires-leonardo-ai-to-boost-its-generative-ai-efforts/">acquired Leonardo.ai</a>, a provider of GenAI content and research, to expand its AI tools portfolio, and in April 2024, it acquired creative software company&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/26/24112277/canva-affinity-acquisition-design-software-suite-adobe-rival">Affinity</a> to make professional design tools more accessible. Other notable acquisitions included&nbsp;<a href="https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/flourish/">Flourish,</a> a data visualization tool (February 2022);<a href="https://www.kaleido.ai/b/kaleido-is-joining-the-canva-family"> Kaleido,</a> a visual AI platform (February 2021); and Zeetings, a presentation platform (April 2018).Key customers and partnershipsAs of September 2024, Canva served various notable companies including Expedia Group, Hubspot, Sony Music, Reddit, and Marriott International, and had over 135 million monthly active users globally.Canva&nbsp;<a href="https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/getty-ai-partnership/">expanded its partnership</a> with Getty Images in August 2024 to integrate Getty's vast library of stock photos directly into the Canva platform, providing users with access to millions of premium images.&nbsp;

Canva

Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that helps professionals and students communicate effectively across various platforms and devices. Developed by linguists and engineers, Grammarly uses natural language processing and machine learning to provide suggestions for improving grammar, spelling, punctuation, clarity, conciseness, tone, and overall style.&nbsp;The platform’s offerings include a free version with basic writing suggestions and premium and enterprise plans with advanced features like full-sentence rewrites, plagiarism detection, vocabulary enhancements, and brand tone consistency. It also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.grammarly.com/features#:~:text=across%20500%2C000%2B%20apps%20and%20websites">integrates</a> with over 500,000 apps and websites including Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Slack, and Notion.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In August 2024, Grammarly introduced&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240814851435/en/Grammarly-Launches-Grammarly-Authorship-to-Enable-Transparency-in-Writing-Assignments-for-the-AI-Age">Grammarly Authorship</a>, a tool enabling users to demonstrate which document parts were human-created, AI-generated, or AI-edited. This feature aimed to address challenges to academic integrity in the AI age.Key customers and partnershipsAs of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.grammarly.com/about">September 2024</a>, Grammarly had served 96% of the Fortune 500 companies, over 70,000 professional teams across various notable companies, including BlackRock, Zoom, Expedia, Salesforce, and Databricks, and over 30 million daily active users globally.Grammarly introduced a Global Channel Partner Program in September 2023 to offer enterprise AI solutions across industries. The program helps businesses provide their customers with Grammarly's AI writing support, including products like Grammarly Business and Grammarly for Education. Partners can benefit from tools such as deal registration, quote management, and enablement programs while offering customers a solution that increases efficiency and quality in written communications.Grammarly&nbsp;<a href="https://news.utexas.edu/2024/05/06/ut-partners-with-grammarly-to-guide-effective-generative-ai-use-in-higher-education/">partnered with</a> the University of Texas at Austin in August 2024 to support the adoption of GenAI within academic settings.

Grammarly

Picsart is a digital content creation platform that offers a suite of AI-powered tools for editing images, text, videos, GIFs, and logos. As of September 2024, the company offers over 300 million editable photos and templates. Picsart's AI capabilities span image generation, upscaling, object removal, background replacement, style transfer, and avatar creation.The company's flagship product,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.technology.org/2023/11/29/picsart-launched-a-new-set-of-ai-content-creation-tools/">Picsart Ignite</a>, introduced in November 2023, comprises over 20 AI tools that enable users to generate visuals, enhance existing content, and streamline creative workflows.&nbsp;In April 2024, the company<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240418403128/en/Picsart-Makes-Professional-Product-Shots-Simple-with-new-AI-Powered-%E2%80%98Smart-Background%E2%80%99-Feature"> introduced Smart Background,</a> an AI-powered photography studio that understands the subject, suggests custom backgrounds, and adds realistic drop shadows and other contextually-aware elements.&nbsp;The company has also expanded its enterprise offerings by launching API services (such as upscale, effects, photo editing, remove background, and more) and introducing platform integrations for Picsart’s suite of editing tools, including the Photo Editor SDK, Print Editor SDK, and Ads Editor SDK.Additionally, in August 2023, Picsart partnered with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230810415582/en/Most-Likely-to-Create-the-Best-Yearbooks-Picsart-and-Walsworth-Partner-to-Bring-the-Internet%E2%80%99s-Favorite-Tools-to-Schools">Walsworth Yearbooks,</a> a yearbook printer, for students to access Picsart's photo editing suite to enhance their yearbook designs.In December 2021, Picsart acquired&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211202005694/en/Picsart-to-Acquire-Computer-Vision-and-AI-Company-DeepCraft">DeepCraft,</a> an R&amp;D company specializing in computer vision and machine learning, and in July 2020, it acquired&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200722005090/en/PicsArt-Acquires-Motion-Based-Video-Effects-Company-D%E2%80%99efekt">D'efekt,</a> a company specializing in advanced motion-based video effects, to enhance its suite of visual editing tools.Key customers and partnershipsPicsart primarily caters to the fashion and beauty, real estate, food and drink, interior design, health and wellness, education, and entertainment industries. As of September 2024, its notable customers included CM Media Group, DocuPost, Popsockets, Imgur, and Mediaclip.In June 2024, Picsart announced a partnership with&nbsp;<a href="https://ux-news.com/picsart-and-getty-image-develop-their-own-artificial-intelligence-model/">Getty Images</a> to develop a custom model that would allow users to create images leveraging AI for personal and commercial purposes.

Picsart

Barcelona-based Typeform is a no-code SaaS platform offering conversational forms, quizzes, surveys, and asynchronous video solutions to help companies engage with their customers. Typeform's core product is a web-based platform that enables users to build visually appealing and engaging forms. It offers over 3,000 free templates (as of September 2024), which include customer service requests, quizzes, polls, and order forms to improve customer engagement. The software is designed to display questions one at a time, mimicking a natural conversation flow. Typeform also offers a range of customization options, including various question types, design themes, and logic flows to create personalized user experiences, letting users showcase their brands via the platform’s customizable digital canvas and content tools.The firm also offers&nbsp;<a href="https://www.videoask.com/product">VideoAsk,</a> a tool that enables users to create interactive video-based forms. Users can choose from up to nine answer types (which include net promoter score, appointment scheduling, and payment collection) to create custom experiences as well as AI chatbots that can provide contextual responses to queries.&nbsp;In January 2024, the company launched&nbsp;<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/typeform-launches-formless-the-ai-powered-form-builder-that-simulates-real-conversations-302037962.html">“Formless,”&nbsp;</a>a form-building tool that leverages generative AI technology from OpenAI. The tool enables users to collect structured data through two-way conversations with forms that ask and respond to questions. As of February 2024, the tool supported responses in over 120 languages.&nbsp;As of September 2024, the platform provided 300+ integrations with third-party platforms such as Slack, HubSpot, and Zapier and enables users to import, analyze, and process their data across tools like Google Forms, Office 365, Excel Online, Google Analytics, and Google Tag Manager.&nbsp;Key customers and partnerships<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/typeform-launches-formless-the-ai-powered-form-builder-that-simulates-real-conversations-302037962.html">In January 2024,</a> Typeform reported 150,000 paying customers, including enterprise customers such as Intuit, Hermes, Hubspot, Apple, Uber, Nike, Airbnb, and Barry’s.&nbsp;In January 2024, Typeform launched an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.typeform.com/blog/news/typeform-launches-agency-partner-program/">Agency Partner Program</a> to collaborate with creative and digital agencies to expand its reach and provide enhanced services to clients. Its notable partners include HubSpot, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, and Zapier.

Typeform

Ceros is a no-code Saas experiential content creation platform that enables users to incorporate animations, interactions, and multimedia elements into their designs using presets and templates. The company’s product portfolio includes 1) Studio, which facilitates collaboration for real-time previews across devices, version control, and file management; 2) Editor, which creates and edits interactive content, allowing for real-time collaboration, text and media editing, and publishing; and 3) MarkUp, a platform for feedback.In January 2022, Ceros acquired<a href="https://aithority.com/video/ceros-acquires-online-visual-commenting-tool-oroson/"> Oroson,</a> an online visual feedback tool, to provide, review, and resolve comments directly on content. The new features from Oroson are available in MarkUp. Additionally, in October 2021, the company acquired<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ceros-announces-acquisition-of-design-to-code-platform-avocode-301403665.html"> Avocode,</a> a design-to-code platform to improve the integration of Avocode's Open Design API, streamline the process of bringing design files from one platform to another, and further its mission of removing coding from the creative process.&nbsp;Key customers and partnerships<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ceros-announces-alison-lange-engel-as-new-ceo-302145220.html">As of May 2024,</a> the company served over 900 enterprise clients including Colliers, Getty, McKesson, McKinsey, Pepsi, and Red Bull. Its platform is used in industries such as tech, healthcare, financial services, real estate, consulting, and entertainment.The company’s notable partners through its partnership program include Highspot, Showpad, Getty Images, Noun Project, Adobe Marketo Engage, HubSpot, and Adobe Analytics.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Ceros

Assists content writers in creating digital written media including blogs, ebooks, magazines, and journals.

Platforms & tools that assist in creating image-based content such as illustrations, diagrams, infographics, photographs, GIFs  and other image-based media

Assists in creating a variety of digital media channels including podcasts, polls, quizzes, and surveys.

Platforms for discovering and purchasing digital content. These platforms typically offer a repository of digital content

Startups providing digital asset management (DAM) services for managing assets together with workflow management tools to collaborate among internal and external team members on content creation

Platforms that provide an all-in-one solution that covers the entire content creation process. Typically also provides consultancy services covering content strategy, design, and analytics.

Platforms & tools that assist in creating video-based content including animations, vlogs, tutorial videos, commericals and other video-based content

For written and visual content creation AI/ML is a core part of the end result

NLP automates the creation of personalized written media content for different use cases

Uses generative AI to automate the creation of personalized content across multiple media formats

Skyword

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