It’s Going To Be Hard: Brainbase Raises $8M Series A
Brainbase has raised a new $8M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Nosara Capital to build the software infrastructure for brands that own and license IP.
Fortune’s Jeff John Roberts covered the story here.
Other investors include Alpha Edison, Struck Capital, Bonfire Ventures, Tera Ventures, Sterling Road, FJ Labs, Hamid Barkhordar, Spencer Lazar, Michael Stoppelman, Jenny Fleiss and David Fraga.
With my 24th birthday around the corner, I’m grateful to work with and learn from such accomplished people. For example, Jenny co-founded Rent The Runway, David is the President of InVision and Bessemer has invested in iconic technology companies like DocuSign, LinkedIn, Shopify, Twilio, Twitch and Yelp.
This Time Is Different
Normally when a company announces a new financing round, people tend to want to hold hands and sing Kumbaya, celebrating their milestones. This is not the time for that. Companies are hurting and the future is uncertain. Now more than ever, it’s time for brands to adapt and to build. It’s going to be hard.
But that begs the question, who is stepping up to lead our industry during and after this crisis? Who is asking the tough questions? Are the licensing industry’s current ways of working sustainable, scalable, modern? What needs to change? How do we get there, fast? Should the licensing industry’s growth still be predicated around in-person trade shows? What are new ways to monetize brands outside of traditional licensing? What is the definition of a brand? How is yours going to look coming out of this crisis? What about your team? What are their functions? How are you coming up with new ideas and protecting them?
I believe it would be healthy for IP and licensing executives to go through this thought experiment. Looking at these questions as the founder of an IP-focused tech company, most of my answers to those questions were some variation of “No”.
I believe that’s good and bad. The good news is that there’s an opportunity for improvement and innovation in this space. The bad news is that we need to accelerate the transition to a technology-driven industry as fast as possible while minimizing disruption, and we’re not moving fast enough right now. Perhaps most importantly, we need IP and licensing teams to buy-in to this vision of the future.
The Future and What Brainbase Is Doing
Brainbase believes intellectual property is synonymous with innovation and that licensing is a powerful way to extend a brand’s influence. That both industries are related and have tremendous potential.
As a company, we’re interested in 4 areas as they relate to brands who own and license IP.
- Help facilitate the creation of new ideas and brands
- Help companies protect their brands and IP
- Find new ways to monetize brands
- Build software to manage the processes around owning IP
Brainbase Assist
Our first product, Brainbase Assist, helps companies manage any licensing, partnership or sponsorship agreement from end-to-end in a single platform.
It was recently nominated for the 2020 Newcomer Award by Licensing International.
Now, with over $12M raised, Brainbase will continue investing millions of dollars to make Assist the global leader for companies who need to manage any type of licensing, partnership or sponsorship agreement.
Assist is fully modular, so you can get started with any of its features, then add on as needed. Assist is also free forever for new brands.
We have a lot of work ahead. Brainbase is evolving fast and investing heavily to build great software infrastructure for brands that own and license their IP.
If you manage IP, if you run a licensing or partnerships team, if you manage IT for your organization, we would love to partner with you. You can rely on us to be here as your long term partner— to be ahead, flexible, and relentless. We’re going to do whatever it takes to make sure our customers have the tools needed to survive this uncertain time and to thrive and grow.
Let’s get through this together and come out stronger, more innovative, and more agile. It’s what’s required. It’s going to be hard, but let’s go make it happen.
More product announcements coming soon.
Nate Cavanaugh, Co-founder/CEO
I would like to thank our customers again for taking a bet on Brainbase’s vision. We would not be here without you. To quote one of our (awesome) customers, “I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.” Our team is working relentlessly to make Brainbase great and will not stop until we get there.
