Each year, our funds define specific areas of investment focus for the year. We then do a mid-year review of each of these and adjust our approach if necessary. Most often, this mid-year correction is modest, just a tweak or lane change. But this summer, we felt that changes in our immersive experiences and content […]
Gaming
Network Next Raises $3.2M for the Internet Fast Lane for Gaming and Interactive Content
The internet may not be as smart as you think. It currently treats all internet traffic exactly the same, which is a big problem for gamers because gaming traffic needs to be in real-time and highly responsive. The solution to this problem is the internet fast lane startup Network Next. This Santa Monica-based startup, founded […]
How to Train Like an Olympic Champion for Your Next eSports Competition
There is only one chance in 562,400 that a person in today’s world will win a medal in the summer Olympic Games. Depending upon the sport and event, the chances of winning a gold medal range from 1 in 3.5 million to 1 in 9 million. I was fortunate to train several track and field […]
Singularity 6 Raises $2.5M to Create The Community Every Gamer Dreams Of
Gaming is more popular than ever, and Singularity 6 is on a mission to create an entirely new gaming experience built on meaningful community. This gaming company wants to make sure that they build games where community and connection is the key focus. La TechWatch spoke with cofounder Aidan Karabaich about creating a gaming culture […]
Can Blockchain Improve the Gaming Industry?
Many of those my age will remember Magic: The Gathering. Part of the joy of physical card collecting was unwrapping a card that you had no idea how many other people had access to in the world. It’s possible that those cards might not ever be manufactured after a limited run, and therefore your card […]
This LA Esports Startup That Just Raised $15M Has Investors Going Crazy
Not many high schools have esports league, that is until now. The company PlayVS is chartering unmarked territory by being the first epsorts league for high school students to compete in through its exclusive partnership with the NFHS. Its goal is to provide the opportunity for all students to get involved in something outside of […]
This LA eSports Company Raised $2.5M to Build a Platform for Influential Gamers
eSports are more popular than ever and there is a significant fanbase surrounding influential eSport competitors. Quarterback Inc. is an eSports engagement platform that enables streamers and professional eSport players to engage with their fanbase. This platform allows influential gamers to create custom game experiences for their fans, and it is the first platform that […]
Why MOCAs Will Redefine Advertising in 2018
When it comes to marketing, we’ve heard it all before: go where your audience is. The thing is, we already know where they are… on their mobile phones! But how do we as marketers reach them in a tumultuous landscape made up of millions of applications? We’ve inundated consumers on social and traditional media, but […]
This Startup Provides the Best Deal Since the Dutch Purchased Manhattan
Peter Minuit is credited with spearheading the purchase of the island of Manhattan for the Dutch from the Native Americans in 1626 in exchange for 60 guilders. Accounting for inflation, that price equates to $967 in today’s dollars. An incredible deal in a city where real estate is changing hands at an average of $1868 […]
Game Over: How Mobile Games Conquered Hollywood
The biggest and most powerful entertainment companies are no longer film studios or cable companies, but mobile gaming companies. And it’s no wonder, people do everything on their smartphones and spend 2.2x more time on them than they did just five years ago. Almost everyone plays some sort of mobile game. About 192MM Americans play […]
LA Startup Maestro Just Raised $3M to Broadcast eSports at Scale
As eSports explodes to service the 2.6B gamers worldwide, live streaming has hit a critical inflection point. Maestro, the enterprise broadcast platform for content producers, is capitalizing on this surge in popularity by providing the platform to stream at scale. Providing personalized internet TV channels for content creators, live streamers, and brands, Maestro understands that the […]