WhoSay Garners Greylock Capital
2011-10-03
WhoSay was developed as a way for celebrities to easily manage and foster authentic connections with their fans via social media and mainstream media. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
LOS ANGELES, CA, WhoSay, Inc., the personal media management platform for celebrities and influencers, today announced an investment from Greylock Partners, which has invested in companies such as Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn and Pandora. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
"Greylock is the premier investor in the consumer and social media space and they understand better than anyone the value our celebrity clients create across social and mainstream media," says Steve Ellis, co-Founder and CEO, WhoSay. "We are thrilled to have access to Greylock's expertise and experience in this area to help support WhoSay in the next stage of our growth."
WhoSay was developed as a way for celebrities to easily manage and foster authentic connections with their fans via social media and mainstream media. Fans now receive unique content from their favorite stars via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other media outlets. WhoSay makes managing these connections easier and more engaging for celebrities, while fans can now trust in knowing the content is authentic and original. The company currently has hundreds of active celebrity clients that in total have more than 700 million highly engaged fans.
"WhoSay has found a way to make this engagement process easier for celebrities which, in turn, gives fans more of the unique and authentic content from major influencers that has rarely been available before. The quality of the celebrities already active on WhoSay leads to word of mouth growth to other major celebrities looking to solve the same challenges," says David Sze, Partner, Greylock Partners. "We are excited to be part of the WhoSay team."
Amazon Investments LLC and High Peaks Ventures are also investors in WhoSay. Creative Artists Agency (CAA), the world's leading entertainment and sports agency, co-founded the company with Ellis. The service is available to clients from any talent agency, public relations, or management firm.
ABOUT WHOSAY
WhoSay is a media management platform for famous artists, athletes and other personalities to manage their interactions with fans in a direct and authentic way via social and mainstream media. This allows fans access to content from their favorite stars through Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and other media outlets. The company currently has hundreds of active celebrity clients that in total have more than 700 million highly-engaged fans.
CAA, the world's leading entertainment and sports agency, co-founded the company and Amazon Investments LLC, Greylock Partners and High Peaks Ventures are investors. Prior to founding WhoSay, Ellis served as founder and CEO of Pump Audio, a leading music-licensing business, which he sold to Getty Images in 2007. WhoSay is headquartered in New York with offices in Los Angeles and London.
ABOUT GREYLOCK PARTNERS
Greylock has partnered with game-changing entrepreneurs to build market-transforming companies since 1965. As founders, operators and investors, we strive to be the best partners for entrepreneurs building disruptive consumer and enterprise software companies. More than 100 partner companies have gone public and more than 100 have achieved successful mergers/acquisitions, including Constant Contact, Data Domain, DoubleClick, LinkedIn, Pandora, Red Hat, Success Factors, and Zipcar. We continue to invest in companies that define new markets, including Airbnb, Apptio, Cloudera, Facebook, Groupon, Imperva, One Kings Lane, Palo Alto Networks, and Workday. For more information about Greylock Partners, visit our Web site (www.greylock.com) or blog (www.greylockvc.com) or follow us on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/greylock) or Twitter (@GreylockVC).
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