Imagine Impact, the content accelerator and on-line market founded by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard and run through Tyler Mitchell, has closed a Series A financing spherical led through Benchmark.
The Silicon Valley venture capital company has invested in startups like Uber, eBay, Stitch Fix, Snap and lots of more. Longtime Benchmark accomplice Bill Gurley spearheaded the Impact deal and could be a part of its board.
“We could not be more thrilled to be working with Benchmark. They have an unrivaled track record in building marketplaces and companies that have changed the world,” Grazer said. “From the moment we met Bill, it was clear that he understood and believed in our vision. Benchmark is not just an investor, but a true partner, whose expertise you can’t put a price on.”
Howard stated the backing will permit Imagine Impact to increase its impact. “Their funding allows us to go wider and deeper in bringing incredible storytellers to the forefront and connecting them to the entertainment industry,” he stated.
“We initially launched Impact as a content accelerator to democratize access to the entertainment industry, discover talent at scale and accelerate the often slow, frustrating and antiquated development process,” Mitchell said.
“To do this, we built new technologies and systems to rapidly evaluate talent at scale, and developed (or created) a platform to showcase the talent we discovered and connect them and their material directly to the global market.”
Gurley said the traditional way of sourcing entertainment talent “is based on who you know, which presents high barriers-to-entry for the fresh voices we need to hear from.” He added, “Impact is knocking down these barriers through a marketplace model that reduces information asymmetry and levels the playing field. Ultimately this leads to more opportunities and better outcomes for everyone involved.”
This fall, Imagine Impact plans to release The Creative Network, an online market and expert networking platform designed mainly customized to the amusement industry.
The Series A follows a deal with Netflix using Impact’s proprietary structures to supply and expand unique feature movies from writers around the sector across 4 particular genres for the streaming giant. The company additionally released an Australian offshoot financed through Screen Australia and Film Victoria along side state and territory display agencies.
Founded in 2018, Impact has a community of 30,000 writers from over eighty countries and advanced seventy two projects, 25 of that have been set up 24 at main studios.
