Doubling down

Since 2016 we’ve been building visionary Synthetic Media and Entertainment companies at the frontier of Deep Learning. We’ve brought together the very best entrepreneurs, product, engineering and business talent together to bring four companies to life.

Today we are delighted to share news about Splash’s (formerly Popgun) $20M USD Series A round. The round was co-led by Amazon’s Alexa Fund and BITKRAFT Ventures with ongoing support from our current investors Khosla Ventures and King River Capital. Splash is using AI-powered tools and video games to develop new ways for users to create, perform and interact with fans through live performances. You can read more on Splash’s Series A raise here.

We are also pleased to share that Replica have been awarded an Epic Megagrant to accelerate their growing library of AI voice actors for creators to tell stories through games, film, and metaverse experiences using platforms like Unreal Engine. Read more here.

In the middle of this year, we had to make some tough decisions. With a heavy heart we pulled the plug on Delta AI and Vaux. Along with our co-founders and co-investors we did our absolute best to turn these ships around but sadly the time came to bring a close to their journeys. Our biggest lesson has been how timing and composition play a vital role when we build highly technical and product focussed teams. We sincerely thank Daniel, Tiffany, Jackson, Gina, Steph, Lindsay, Meg and Chris for their dedication and relentless energy.

We are lucky to keep working with some of the talented members from Delta AI and Vaux who have now joined Splash and Replica.

What has been important to us as a venture studio is that we take the approach of quality of quantity in our portfolio. We’ve always been true to our role as co-founders — rolling up our sleeves on a daily basis and being hands on through thick and thin. All our efforts as a group have now been committed to accelerating these two companies and bringing them the success they deserve.

At this important and exciting time the team at Mawson, including myself, have joined Splash to help them as they scale rapidly. (The team is hiring talented ML engineers, developers, designers and creatives and you can view Splash job opportunities here). It’s not goodbye from us, but we’ve hit the pause button on forming new companies.

Thank you to all our supporters.. we’ll let you know when we’ll be back online!

Until next time,

Michelle Dintner

Portfolio Director — Mawson