BITKRAFT Ventures was founded in 2015 by german serial entrepreneur, Jens Hilgers. BITKRAFT’s team is located in Berlin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, Madrid and Lisbon covering videogames and esports investments not only digitally but in the most relevant and busy metropoles for digital entertainment in the Western world.

BITKRAFT Ventures

WPP is a creative transformation company. WPP creates transformative ideas and outcomes for its clients through an integrated offer of communications, experience, commerce, and technology.

Axel Springer is a media company engaged in publishing newspapers, magazines, and digital sales channels. Axel Springer founded the publishing house in Hamburg in 1946; the editors spent the first year working above a warehouse for tea and spices, often without electricity, and using borrowed typewriters.  As a result of consistent internationalization and digitization, Axel Springer SE today is not only market leader in the German print business, but is also active in more than 40 countries through subsidiaries, joint ventures and licenses.  Now it is a question of pressing ahead with digitization even faster and more vigorously. For Axel Springer SE, informative and entertaining journalism is a viable business model also in future on the Internet, along with marketing and classifieds, the other two business segments in which the company is traditionally strong. In the tradition of its founder, who fostered journalistic and technological innovations in his time, Axel Springer SE is breaking new ground. The company is consistently pursuing the objective of building up a fast-growing and profitable digital portfolio and for this reason is networking today more than ever before with the current generation of founders: digital start-ups. Along with the transformation of their established strong media brands, their own new developments online and strategically-oriented acquisitions of web companies, this network is one of the building blocks of the company's international digitization strategy: Axel Springer SE wants to become the leading digital publisher.

Axel Springer

HBSE Ventures is a venture capital fund focused on sports-tech.

HBSE Ventures

Gaingels is a venture investment syndicate in service of the LGBT+ community and its allies, investing in companies with LGBT+ founders and C-suite leaders at all stages of growth, as well as in more established companies resolved on building more inclusive teams, with a global portfolio of 130+ companies and $70M in deployed investment capital to date.  The Gaingels network also actively supports its portfolio in identifying and recruiting diverse talent to their C-suite and board leadership teams and fosters a vibrant global community of industry leaders, investors, operators, and entrepreneurs who share a common goal for positive social change through business and successful investments.

Gaingels

Sony Innovation Fund is the corporate venture capital arm of Sony that invests and engages in early-stage companies. Beyond investment, our mission is to provide resources such as access to the broader Sony world and its global network, as well as collaborate with startups to:  • Foster business creation in related lines of business and new areas of interest to Sony  • Catalyze a talented and passionate team  Sony innovation Fund was founded in 2016.

Sony Innovation Fund

Alumni Ventures Group provides high-quality, diversified venture portfolios to individual investors who previously haven't had access to VC. It helps accredited alums from top entrepreneurial schools invest together in the ventures of fellow alums. The firm backs companies with an alumni connection and an institutional lead investor with expertise in the space. AVG also offers focused funds that allow any accredited investor access to a venture portfolio, diversified by type, sector, stage, and geography. Beth Obermiller, Michael Madden, and Mike Collins co-founded the firm in Manchester, New Hampshire in 2013.

Alumni Ventures

The Chicago Cubs an American professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois.

The Chicago Cubs

Goal Ventures

Early stage investors supporting transformational leaders and organizations who focus on propelling the world forward.

NaHCO3

NBCUniversal is a media and entertainment company that develops, produces, and markets entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. The company was formed through the combination of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment. It owns and operates a portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a motion picture company, television production operations, a television station group, theme parks, and a suite of internet-based businesses. NBCUniversal was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in New York, United States with a presence in California, New Jersey, Florida, and Connecticut as well as London, United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of [Comcast Corporation](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/comcast).

NBCUniversal

HTC Corp is engaged in the design, development, and manufacture of smartphones and tablets in Taiwan.   The company offers PDA phones and smartphones for mobile operators and distributors in Europe, the United States, and Asia. These machines are available as HTC devices and as products individually customized for operators and device partners. The company provides its own HTC self-branded products as well as supports operator-branded products and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners. It owns Dopod as a subsidiary company and is a member of the Open Handset Alliance.   The company’s products are sold under various brand names such as HTC, Dopod, and Qtek and are often rebranded by major telecommunication carriers. Its products also include pocket PC phones (PDA Phone), ultra mobile phones, HTC kovsky (Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1), and HTC dream (T-mobile G1).   HTC Corp was founded by Cher Wang and Peter Chou in 1997. It is headquartered in New Taipei City, Taiwan.

Sand Hill Angels is a group of Silicon Valley angel investors passionate about helping entrepreneurs get to the next level. What makes the group unique is the collective experience of its members building and scaling deep technology companies. The group has been around for more than two decades. Sand Hill Angels works openly and collaboratively with venture capital funds, other angel organizations, and the Bay Area ecosystem that fosters the growth of technology startups.  For additional information, visit www.sandhillangels.com or follow @SandHillAngels.com on Twitter.

Sand Hill Angels

Liberty Global provides video, voice, and broadband Internet services primarily in Europe, Japan, and Chile. The company offers various broadband distribution services over its cable television systems, including video, broadband Internet access, and telephony. It also provides video services through direct-to-home satellite or multi-channel multipoint distribution systems; analog video services consisting of basic programming and expanded basic programming; digital cable services comprising basic programming and premium services, as well as pay-per-view programming, including video-on-demand and near-video-on-demand, digital video recorders, and high definition television services; and broadband Internet access services. In addition, Liberty Global provides telephony services that include circuit-switched telephony services and voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) telephony services, as well as offers mobile telephony services using third party networks. Further, it owns programming networks that provide video programming channels to multi-channel distribution systems owned by it and by third parties.  As of December 31, 2008, Liberty Global owned and operated networks that passed approximately 34,275,100 homes, as well as served approximately 15,608,200 video subscribers, 6,201,300 broadband Internet subscribers, and 4,644,300 telephony subscribers. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in London, United Kingdom.

Liberty Global

Emmis Communications Corporation (Emmis) is a diversified media company, principally focused on radio broadcasting. The Company owns 18 frequency modulation (FM) and three amplitude modulation (AM) radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Austin (Emmis has a 50.1% controlling interest in Emmis’ radio stations located there), Indianapolis and Terre Haute, IN. One of the Company’s FM radio stations in Los Angeles and one of its FM radio stations in New York are operated pursuant to local marketing agreements (LMA’s) whereby third parties provide the programming for the stations and sell all advertising within that programming. In June 2014, Emmis Communications Corp purchased a controlling interest in Digonex, a pricing company with clients including sports teams, retailers, cultural institutions, and entertainment companies

Emmis Communications

Simon Equity Partners is a private company categorized under Loans. Current estimates show this company has an annual revenue of $1 to 2.5 million and employs a staff of approximately 1 to 4.

Simon Equity Partners

Evolution Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund dedicated to investing in startup companies with purposeful founders who want support in leadership and in developing their organizations so as to rapidly scale without losing their soul, serving all their stakeholders as they do.

Evolution Ventures

Samsung NEXT Ventures is an investment arm of Samsung NEXT, a multifaceted innovation group within Samsung Electronics dedicated to identifying new growth opportunities that will define the next decade. The firm prefers to invest in artificial intelligence, fintech, blockchain, health technology, infrastructure, and media technology sectors.

Samsung NEXT

Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment is a sports and entertainment company that aims to make a difference in communities through sports. Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment's mission is to use its platform to unite and drive change in the communities where teams play and perform. The global portfolio of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment includes premier sports franchises, brands, venues, and investment platforms centered on marquee assets such as the Philadelphia 76ers, the New Jersey Devils, and the Prudential Center.

Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment

PayPal Ventures is PayPal's venture capital arm, investing in PayPal's strategic interest fields for return. Leveraging PayPal Venture's expertise and experience, PayPal – and the companies in which it invests – are helping to bring innovative solutions to market more quickly, scale them faster, and build a global financial system that is more transparent, personalized, inclusive, and customer-focused. PayPal Venture's investments reinforce its commitment to leading the financial technology industry and supporting entrepreneurship.

PayPal Ventures

Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund is a fund to invest in startups to create new entertainment and build its IP Metaverse.

BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment (021 Fund)

Sprint VC is a New York based venture capital firm investing in companies building revolutionary technologies.

Sprint Vc

Marque Ventures invests in entrepreneurs building the future of American defense, manufacturing, and deep tech innovation.

Marque Ventures

Anzu.io

Anzu is the most advanced intrinsic in-game ad solution for mobile, PC, console, and the metaverse. Anzu’s in-game ads put players first and help advertisers reach audiences programmatically in a non-disruptive and highly engaging way. A patented 3D ad tracking engine, the first to bring viewability measurement in-game with Oracle Moat and IAS, partnerships with trusted AdTech vendors, and compliant with the industry measurement standards outlined by the MRC and IAB make Anzu the preferred in-game advertising partner for brands and agencies worldwide. Anzu helps game developers monetize their titles with ad placements that complement the gameplay, and by monetizing the entire game session, they benefit from consistent and reliable revenue streams. Supporting all major and custom built game engines, and a full-stack ad monetization solution that provides complete control over ad placements makes Anzu the preferred in-game ad monetization partner for developers worldwide. Backed by Sony Innovation Fund, NBCUniversal, Samsung Next, Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund, WPP, PayPal Ventures and many other prominent investors, Anzu is on a mission to make advertising in games better. Better for brands, better for game developers, and better for gamers. Learn more at https://www.anzu.io/

Israel-founded Anzu.io specializes in video game advertising, providing an in-game programmatic advertising platform. The firm’s platform allows brands to place real-world display and video ads in-game, with the ability to update ads in real time in response to data signals and first-party data.&nbsp;

Using AI to automate, enhance and optimize marketing activities

Marketing Automation

Blair Herter on LinkedIn: Working with Itamar and his team of precogs at Anzu.io makes me feel like…

Oracle

Will partner with Oracle Moat to provide advertisers with third-party viewability verifications and in-view metrics, measuring the percentage of the creative on-screen, the ad size, the time in view and the angle.

Startups offering tools for finding and attracting potential customers with targeted ads.

Comcast

NBCUniversal has partnered with in-game ads platform Anzu in order to expand its operations into gaming and esports.

Verizon

Verizon Media has partnered with in-game ad platform Anzu.io to offer media buyers the ability to drive brand awareness through unintrusive in-game ads to reach the gaming and esports community.

Israel-founded Anzu.io specializes in video game advertising, providing an in-game programmatic advertising platform. The firm’s platform allows brands to place real-world display and video ads in-game, with the ability to update ads in real time in response to data signals and first-party data.&nbsp;The firm’s competitive edge is its claim to be the only in-game advertising platform covering all video game mediums (20+) including consoles, PC, mobile, esports tournaments, and live game streaming. The firm also claimed to provide the first 3D digital advertising solution for games, which results in a 23% increase in ad viewability compared with traditional 2D advertising.&nbsp;&nbsp;Anzu.io was also featured in our <a href="https://sp-edge.com/insights/9587">EDGE 100 list</a> of rising startups.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of July 2024, the platform served 150 million monthly active users, including Vodafone, Pepsi, Samsung, Fanta, and American Eagle.The firm has also partnered with leading game developers such as Ubisoft, Xbox, Vivid Games, and Lion Castle Entertainment, giving advertisers and brands access to 16,000+ game titles. The firm has also partnered with ad marketplaces including OpenX, AdColony, Smart, and Azerion to make its in-game programmatic advertising available to advertisers. In February 2022, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/8799">NBCUniversal became the global sales partner</a> and exclusive third-party seller in the US and UK for Anzu.io’s game ads inventory. In February 2023, the firm <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16502">extended its partnership with Livewire,</a> a gaming and GameTech provider, to expand Anzu.io's services in Germany and France.

Outbrain is an algorithm-based content recommendation and discovery platform that curates native advertising content from the open web, providing personalized content for brands to increase customer engagement. Outbrain also allows content publishers to amplify its reach by supplying content to the platform. As of September 2023, customers could access 7,000+ online content sources including content by the Washington Post, Guardian, and BBC.&nbsp;Outbrain has been a pioneer in the content recommendation space and was the first to introduce an algorithm-based content recommendation in 2008. It was also the first to introduce a self-service platform for content recommendation in 2012. In May 2021, it tested “QualityRatings,” a tool that implements quality guidelines for the content featured on its platform while using machine learning and AI to create a more personalized user experience. In September 2022, the firm launched <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13122">Keystone</a>, a business optimization solution for publishers.&nbsp;Outbrain has made a series of acquisitions over the years while making enhancements to its product offerings. In November 2021, <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/6992">Outbrain acquired vi</a>, a contextual video intelligence platform for USD 55 million to grow its CTV and other display ads offerings. In August 2024, Outbrain acquired <a href="https://www.adexchanger.com/online-advertising/outbrain-acquires-teads-from-altice-for-1-billion/">Teads</a>, an SSP and video monetization company, to create an "end-to-end, full-funnel platform" by expanding into TV, video, and CTV advertising.&nbsp; Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;Outbrain’s customers include leading news media outlets such as CNN, MSN, and Sky News, serving more than a billion monthly users (by December 2022).&nbsp;&nbsp;In April 2022, Outbrain’s platform was <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9907">integrated with ID5</a> to provide a privacy-first customer identification solution.

Outbrain

Marin Software is an adTech firm offering a suite of solutions for brands looking to conduct search, social media, and ecommerce advertising. The firm’s “MarineOne” solution enables Brands to integrate their data under a single platform; coupled with machine learning tools, marketers can optimize ad spending across multiple platforms. In the case of search and social media advertising, Brands can increase their visibility across a number of search engines and social media platforms including Google, Facebook, and Apple Search Ads.&nbsp;In recent years the firm has been making enhancements to transform its Marine One Software as a complete marketing campaign management &amp; intelligence solution. In line with the firm expanded its ecommerce advertising solution capabilities by increasing the number of integrations to include Criteo’s commerce media platform and Instacart’s advertising platform. In <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12159">2022</a>, the firm rolled out a number of new product and features including 1) MarinOne bidding, the firm's ad bidding marketplace, 2) MarinOne support, to enable advertisers to improve ad performance with multi-edit ad scheduling solutions, 3) social rules engine, to help automate workflows, and 4) <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15019">Budget Optimizer</a>, an ad budget management solution. More recently, in April 2023, the firm introduced an automation tool <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17565">“MarinOne Scripts,”</a> which integrates Python scripting with its MarineOne platform, providing marketers with customized and data-driven solutions to optimize campaigns.&nbsp;Key customers and partnershipsAs of October 2021, several brands from varied industries, including Nissan, American Eagle outfitters, and Harmony, use the firm’s solutions.In 2021, the firm made a number of new initiatives in 2021, including an <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7635">integration with Amazon Ads</a> and a <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/6973">partnership with CitrusAd </a>to expand the ecommerce capabilities of its platform. In January 2023, the company announced an <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16172">integration with Yahoo</a> to broaden access to programmatic ad content.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Marin Software

Founded in China, Terminus claims to have the first account-based marketing (ABM) platform that unifies the marketing and sales teams’ roles under a single platform. Terminus specializes in B2B marketing and, according to the firm, its “Terminus Data Studio” has one of the largest B2B account databases, which by September 2021, covered more than 70 million businesses. Terminus’s customer data platform (CDP) is fully integrated with its marketing automation platform, through which teams can run multi-channel targeted campaigns across many channels including email, ad networks, live chat, and the web. This can then be analyzed with Terminus’ suite of analytics and attribution tools. By September 2021, Terminus served more than 1,000 customers, including Salesloft, Foundry, and Quantum Workplace.According to a study done by Forrester (in Q2 2020), Terminus has been recognized among the ABM platform leaders.Through a series of acquisitions, Terminus has transformed into a marketing cloud platform offering a range of services. Its two latest acquisitions took place within 12 months. In November 2020, it acquired Growflare, a lead generation and account-based intelligence platform catering to B2B startups, followed by B2B CDP Zylotech in September 2021. Terminus hoped to capitalize on these to build the most comprehensive ABM platform on the market.

Terminus

Founded in France, Brevo <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18241">(formerly Sendinblue)</a> began as an email marketing automation platform catering to small and medium-scale businesses (SMB). It has since extended its services to become an all-in-one marketing platform; the range of services found on Brevo's platform include email and SMS marketing, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, landing page creation, and Facebook ad management, among others. In November 2022, the firm launched an <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/14388">integrated meetings solution</a> that brings together scheduling, video conferencing, and payment solutions. In March 2023, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/17462">unveiled “Conversations”</a> to manage customer conversations across messaging channels in one centralized location.Brevo’s platform is compared with other well-known competitors such as Mailchimp and Hubspot and is commended for its live support and fair pricing, making it a strong contender in the SMB space.&nbsp;The company has expanded its product offering through a series of acquisitions during 2021-2022. Brevo acquired three firms in September 2021 for USD 47 million: 1) Metrilo, a provider of customer analytics and marketing services for ecommerce stores, 2) Chatra, a live chat messenger app for increasing online sales, and 3) PushOwl, a customer re-engagement website that uses web-based push notifications. In March 2022, the firm <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9009">acquired MeetFox</a>, a meeting scheduling and video conferencing platform. In September 2022, the company <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13360">acquired Yodel.io,</a> an Austrian cloud-based phone system provider, to enable additional customer touchpoints, and reduce the overall digital marketing spend for SMBs. More recently, in February 2023, the firm <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16271?industryIds=62">acquired Captain Wallet,</a> a mobile wallet marketing platform, to broaden its reach internationally. In December 2023, Brevo acquired <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/24833">WonderPush and Octolis,</a> two customer interaction platforms, to expand its CRM capabilities.&nbsp;&nbsp;The firm achieved <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/15834">USD 100 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)</a> at the end of 2022 while maintaining a positive EBITDA position.&nbsp;Key customers and partnerships&nbsp;The platform catered to 500,000+ customers across 180 countries as of end December 2022.

Brevo

Acquia provides a digital experience platform (DXP) to support medium to large enterprises that use Drupal, an open-source content management system (CMS) that provides the back-end infrastructure for websites and by September 2021, powered approximately 2.1% of websites on the internet. The core product offered by Acquia is a marketing cloud that provides a full suite of services to manage the customer journey. The platform features a customer data platform (CDP), unifying data across multiple sources; sales automation tools to deliver personalized marketing campaigns across multiple delivery channels; marketing campaign management tools to manage distributed marketing teams; and a content management platform to organize and monitor content.&nbsp;Having been built on the Drupal framework, which does not require any programming skills to implement, Acquia’s marketing cloud claims to be more accessible and agile than enterprise cloud solutions provided by incumbents such as Adobe and Oracle. In 2021, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report named Acquia a leader in DXP platforms, while a study done by Forrester (in July 2021) found that customers of Acquia’s DXP solutions experienced a payback on their investment in less than six months, generating an average return on investment (ROI) of 589% over three years.&nbsp;Acquia has made several investments and enhancements to its DXP platform. In January 2021, Acquia, in partnership with Commercetools and Lucidworks, launched “Acquia Digital Commerce,” a service for creating personalized digital shopping experiences for customers. The firm has also added a number of self-serve features to its CDP such as <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11422">“right to erasure”</a> to bolster the privacy and security features of its platform to cater to enterprise users. &nbsp;In&nbsp;<a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/35334">October 2024,</a> Acquia added AI capabilities to digital asset management solutions to accelerate campaign delivery.&nbsp;In September 2021, Acquia acquired Widen Enterprises, a digital asset management (DAM) and product information management (PIM) software company, for an undisclosed amount. As a result, customers can have a fully integrated experience on the platform, while the acquisition also added a further 700+ customers. In November 2023, the company acquired Monsido, a website accessibility and optimization solution from CivicPlus, to expand its platform capabilities.Key customers and partnershipsBy September 2021, Acquia counted one in four Fortune 500 companies, including Johnson &amp; Johnson, Bayer, and Xerox, among its customers. As of September 2024, the company served more than 4,000 customers globally.&nbsp;In June 2022, Acquia <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11352">partnered with Workato</a> (enterprise-level workflow automation platform) to integrate with Acquia’s CDP to expand enterprise use of the platform. The integration added 100+ technology integrations compatible with Acquia’s marketing cloud.

Acquia

Firms positioned as an 'all-in-one' marketing platform,  providing a variety of functions across the MarTech stack

Startups providing platforms for planning and managing marketing campaigns.

Startups providing tools to automate the execution of marketing campaigns across varied channels.

Startups providing tools for gathering, cleaning, and enhancing customer data to provide deep analytics. This also includes firms offering account-based marketing (ABM) solutions to drive targeted and personalized campaigns.

Companies that use GenAI as a core part of their product offering for marketing

Uses AI/ML to enable marketing automation, making it a core part of many companies' products

Metaverse advertising is being explored by AdTech segments for in-game advertising

The in-game advertising segment is in development and has a niche relevance to this area

Marketing automation provides measurement and attribution solutions to measure marketing effectiveness

Personalization tools are mainly used in AdTech and marketing campaign automation

New technology allows individuals and organizations to become carbon intelligent

Carbon Management Software

PROMINENT_CATEGORY

<div>
 
 Cedara, a carbon intelligence platform, and Anzu, an in-game advertising solution, have collaborated to create a global carbon measurement and compensation solution for intrinsic in-game advertising.
 This collaboration enables advertisers to understand and make up for the carbon emissions from their in-game advertising campaigns. Using Cedara's GARM-compliant methodology, the carbon footprint of these campaigns will be calculated. Advertisers will then receive reports detailing emissions and giving options to balance them out using verified carbon removal projects.
 
</div>

Anzu.io

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