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Find venture capital / angel investors who are invested in the robotics and filming.
Hello, and thank you for your question about venture capital and angel investors for robotics and filming. The most useful sources we found to answer your question are the PitchBook article and the Cisco article. The short version is that currently, there isn't an area of venture capital (VC) or angel investment that is dedicated to the film industry. We did, however, find several VC investment firms that are active in the robotics and drone sectors. Below you will find a deep dive of our findings.
VENTURE CAPITAL and the FILM INDUSTRY
The film industry is in definite need of VC or angel funding. Even with the new strides being made in streamlining costs for making a film, most VC or angel investors shy away from film projects due to the highly specialized nature of the business. Many investors fear sinking money in a project that they can't wrap their mind around. If they can't visualize the earnings on the backside of the project, they will pass on the investment.
For this reason, we weren't able to find VC or angel investors that were focused on the film side of your question. However, we did find many active investors in the robotics and drone sectors. We also found a firm that has dipped its toe into the film side of robotics even though the robot in question was a character in a film and not a piece of production equipment.
LIST OF VENTURE CAPITAL / ANGEL INVESTORS
1. ANDREESSEN HOROWITZ -
This Silicon Valley-based firm, with $2.7 billion under management, has already invested in a number of drone and robotics startups. These include: Airware, Zipline, Matternet, Skysafe and Skydio. This firm in interested in the expanded role of drone technology.
2. LUX CAPTIAL –
This firm has headquarters in Menlo Park, CA and New York City. They have invested in a number of drone companies and recently joined Microsoft and Qualcomm in a $26 million funding project with AirMap. They focus on funding emerging science and technology startups which they describe as a “science fiction-mashup”. They currently have $1.1 billion under management. Since they are accustomed to high risk projects, they may be perfect for the film industry where the understanding of money flow is limited to those in the business.
3. FELICIS VENTURES –
They have already invested in a number of drone companies, including: Airware, Zipline, CyPhy Works, Dedrone and Swift Navigation. This shows their strong interest in drone technology in its many applications.
4. INTEL CAPITAL -
Intel Capital recently invested over $60 million in Yuneec Holding Ltd., a global drone manufacturer. Intel has expressed their interest in the varied uses of the Typhoon 4K and are impressed with the drone's “smooth flying and video capture.”
5. DRAPER ASSOCIATES–
This invests in a variety of technology sectors including new media and gaming. They join others on this list as being VC investors who are funding several concurrent drone projects.
6. CHARLES RIVER VENTURES –
This firm recently invested in Wonder Workshop after seeing the success of their Dot and Dash robotics startup which serves the education field. This firm clearly is interested in the use of robotics across different landscapes.
7. QUALCOMM –
This firm has invested $26 million in AirMap, an airspace management platform for drones. Their interest in the use of robotics and drones across many different sectors is the reason they are concurrently funding several different projects.
8. GV –
Also known as Google Ventures, this firm has invested in a number of drone startups including Airware, Zipline, Skycatch and Hivemapper. Google Ventures operates separately from Google and is one of the most active VC firms when it comes to frontier technology.
9. AME CLOUD VENTURES –
This firm has invested in several projects within the robotics sector and associated technology. A couple of their more interesting investments are Modbot and Megabots.
10. ACCEL PARTNERS –
This firm has partnered with DJI, a Chinese drone maker, to create a small investment fund to support other drone and robotics start-ups.
HONORABLE MENTION
MERCATO PARTNERS -
This firm's portfolio is heavy in technology and was one of the backers for the Sphero robotics that became BB-8 in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. While this robotics project served as a character in a movie and not as production equipment, it shows that Mercato has some understanding of the film market.
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, we have found several venture capital and angel investors who have portfolios heavy in robotics and drone technology. So far, the film industry is underserved by a lack of venture capital or angel funding and may need to focus on educating VC and angel investors in the specialized business dealings of the film sector. Thanks for using Wonder! Please let us know if we can help with anything else!