Remagine Ventures is a relatively new European VC fund that focuses on investments in entertainment tech, including AI, gaming, sports and esports, AR/VR, consumer and commerce. It has now completed $35 million in funding from a number of entertainment and media corporations, including Axel Springer and ProSiebenSat.1, Japanese Adways and American Liontree LLC. Last year global media group Sky put $4 million into the fund as part of the launch of its new innovation office in Berlin.
To date, the fund has invested in six entertainment startups, including: Minute Media, a user-generated content platform for sports; Syte.ai, a visual search startup; Novos, a gamer training platform; HourOne, which operates in the world of synthetic media; Vault-ai.com, predictive analytics for film and television; and Madskil, an esports company in stealth.
Started by investor/entrepreneurs Kevin Baxpehler and Eze Vidra, Remagine focuses on early-stage (seed and pre-seed) investments in Israel and the U.K., with synergies between the two territories.
Traditionally, Israel has been better known for its “deep tech” capabilities, but there’s a growing ecosystem of entertainment tech and consumer startups looking to disrupt traditional industries.
Vidra established Campus London, Google’s first physical hub for startups, and later expanded the Campus model internationally. He was also a general partner at Google Ventures (GV), the company’s investment arm in Europe.
Baxpehler is a former entrepreneur and investment banker from Germany. He most recently led the investment activity of German entertainment giant ProSiebenSat.1 in Israel, investing in Dynamic Yield (which recently sold for $300 million to McDonald’s) and Magisto, which was acquired by Vimeo for $200 million.
Vidra said: “We operate in a relatively new market in the Israeli ecosystem. The entertainment-tech sector has tremendous momentum, and Israeli founders are expanding at a rapid pace in this world and we recognize huge potential in it.” Baxpehler added: “Eze and I have experience in the investment world, the entrepreneurial world and the corporate world. We want to meet startups very early, to accompany and guide them even before investing.”