Bright, a startup that has recruited several hundred celebrities, artists and influencers to host ticketed live Zoom events, announced $15 million in funding from investors including several Hollywood celebs.
Bright was founded by former YouTube exec Michael Powers and investor and music manager Guy Oseary, whose clients include Madonna and U2.
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The funding round was led by Sound Ventures — Oseary’s investment firm co-founded with Ashton Kutcher — RIT Capital and Regah Ventures. Additional investors include Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff’s Time Ventures, Globo Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and Twilio CEO/co-founder Jeff Lawson.
Other individual investors include Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann, Amy Schumer, Shawn Mendes and his manager Andrew Gertler’s AG Ventures, fashion designer Rachel Zoe, Drew and Jonathan Scott (“Property Brothers”), Bethenny Frankel (“The Real Housewives of New York City”) and singer Ryan Tedder. Bright also announced that Jessica Alba, Kane Brown and Maria Sharapova are joining the company as advisers.
In addition to investing in Bright, Apatow, Kutcher, Schumer, Mendes, and Drew and Jonathan Scott are among those who have signed on to host events through the company’s platform.
Apatow said in a statement, “As a believer in lifelong learning, I’m proud to be investing in a platform like Bright, offering audiences the unique opportunity to learn directly from the artists and experts they admire the most. Through Bright, I can directly connect and share my knowledge with fellow writers, aspiring directors and lovers of comedy.”
Bright (brightlive.com) is built on top of the Zoom videoconference platform — with the idea that its famous hosts are presenting intimate, interactive experiences for the audience members. Each session ranges from 1-2 hours with ticket prices ranging $25-$150. (Ticket prices are set by the creators themselves.)
Since launching in May, Bright has attracted more than 300 celebrities, artists and influencers for upcoming sessions on the platform. Those include Madonna, Naomi Campbell, D-Nice, the Charli and Dixie D’Amelio, Laura Dern, Deepak Chopra, Lindsey Vonn, Diego Boneta, Jason Bolden, Yris Palmer, Cat & Nat, Ronnie2K and Chef Ludo Lefebvre.
According to Powers, Bright will use the new funding to roll out the Creator Studio, a suite of tools for managing learning sessions, engaging in audience communication and tracking revenue performance.
“Through Bright, talent can better engage authentically with audiences by sharing their own knowledge and bringing their many interests and passions to the foreground,” Powers said in a statement. “We are excited to roll out our new features to continue elevating our platform and mission.”
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