New Funding Round (Yay!): Accomplishing our mission in the next chapter of C+R
I’m delighted to announce that we’ve completed a new funding round from existing and new investors that allows us to build the best marketplace for content licensing. This elevates all brands, plus protects and celebrates creators anywhere on the Internet.
The Time Is Now
For the first time in history, smartphone cameras are outperforming even the highest-grade DSLRs. We capture high quality shots with a gentle finger tap and post them to the internet every day. It’s never been this easy to incorporate high quality shots into campaigns so that our marketing stays fresh and we keep up with our customers. The question is no longer “Can I capture content to fit my brand”? It’s now about “What’s out there? What’s relevant? And can I quickly deploy across my campaigns for a better return”?
Imagine turning the internet into your brand’s content library. Of course, you need to be able to license content if you plan to use it. Catch+Release is on a mission to be the licensing layer of the internet. Online content should be more accessible, easy to use, and safe for both creators and marketers. Your business affairs and legal teams no longer need to spend arduous days wondering whether content is being safely used and properly licensed.
The time is now and the need is great. We have opened a portal into a new realm of creative potential.
Committed Investors, New Investors & Deep Knowledge
Raising a round in a down market is hard. It’s easy to lose sight of who you want to partner with and bring on board. Building a business — like building a market — is all about learning through experimentation and failure. In order to navigate this, you have to pick the right players; you can’t just put anyone on the court. I’m excited to continue working with our early investors including Accel, Cervin, Stagwell and Astia Fund who are absolutely committed to our vision. One of our new investors, HarbourVest who came through a referral, has sat on thousands of boards, has a stellar reputation, and we had instant chemistry.
I’m very lucky to have a strong CEO network. Seasoned founders and executives joining us in this round include Nick Mehta, CEO, Gainsight; Raj De Datta, CEO & Cofounder, Bloomreach and Rachel Romer, CEO & Cofounder, Guild Education whom I’m very fortunate to learn from and grow with.
Additional new investors include 35 Ventures with co-founders Rich Kleinman and Kevin Durant who focus on the sports and entertainment industries and have deep knowledge in key verticals for our business. The team also understands the world of production from the film and media side, which gives us great insights.
What’s Next?
This investment will go towards improving our marketplace so our brand customers and agencies can quickly find and discover relevant content. We’re investing in the creator (supply side of our marketplace) and developing new tools to get them discovered and license their work seamlessly.
The “Third Way”
Marketers have been trained to think of content as either original production or stock. There is now a third way that solves for so many use-cases. Stock is fast and cheap. For scrappy needs, it’s sadly become the default. However, it doesn’t perform well, and it definitely doesn’t serve all needs. Please don’t settle for stock. There’s now a scalable way to access interesting visual content and put it in front of customers quickly and safely. Your customers trust it, and your campaigns will yield a much higher return.
The Future is Bright for Catch+Release
So panning out, we’re effectively changing the way the internet works for all things “content.” The internet is no longer a place to share what’s captured. It’s now a place you can transact and license. We’re providing content liquidity, which represents a new content economy.
It’s All About Connecting Humans
I look at the world of advertising and brand marketing as the largest public gallery we view every single day. We must all ask ourselves, “How can we make that more profound and more about human connection?” Let’s make this better. Sadly there’s too much mediocrity in brand storytelling. By connecting creators and brands, we solve this for the consumer. If we don’t, it really doesn't work. Let’s make our content more beautiful and more powerful. Images have the power to move, and humans take action when moved.
Team First
Since our start, Catch+Release has never wavered from mission – become the licensing layer of the internet. I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished, and I want to take this moment to share how grateful I am for our customers, creators, partners, investors, and strategic advisors who have supported us on this amazing journey.
What I’m most proud of is the team we’ve built at the company. Without this talented and committed group, none of this would even be possible. This next phase of our journey will undoubtedly present some bumps along the way, but with this strong team working tightly together, I’m certain we will overcome any obstacle.
Stay tuned for more updates.
CEO & Founder
P.S. I’m so proud of the human-centric, relevant, game-changing campaigns our customers produce. Here’s some of my recent faves:
Gatorade: Way to be Great
Disney: Mickey & Friends Friendship Day
Teleflora: Mothers Day The Hardest Part
