Next 10 Ventures, an investment company founded last spring by former YouTube exec Benjamin Grubbs on the heels of a $50 million capital raise, announced today that it has invested in four startups across Asia and North America within the digital creator ecosystem.
These investments include: AR and VR content software suite GoMeta; digital rights management provider SuperBam; Toronto-based live social broadcasting platform Stage Ten; and AnalyzeLog, a digital agency that reps kids and family creators in Japan.
Next 10 did not disclose how much money in each company — though Business Insider reports that most of the seed investments ranged from $250,000 to $500,000. In 2019, Next 10 plans not only to invest in companies within the digital space, but in individual creators, according to the outlet.
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“We set out last year to allocate capital against consumer-facing products and services we want to incubate in-house, and to invest directly into creators via incubators and venture deals,” Grubbs, who formerly served as YouTube’s global director of top creator partnerships, said in a statement. To this end, the company has launched two digital creator incubator programs in 2018: one that aims to boost the careers of education-focused vloggers, and another targeting the Southeast Asian market. “We are impressed with our first investment cohort’s growth to date, and are very encouraged by a strong global deal flow as we begin to seek investments for our 2019 cohort.”
In addition to its investment announcements, Next 10 — which is headquartered in Los Angeles and Singapore — last week onboarded a top Facebook exec, the former creator liaison Lauren Schnipper, who has been named VP of creator partnerships.
