Two of Disney’s incubated companies just raised $13 million in funding

Last fall, Disney once again found 10 startup companies that they think would make a dent in the entertainment industry. After an initial investment by Disney, those startups announced some of the amazing business they’ve conducted already thanks to the help.

Now just a few months later, one of those companies and one from the previous incubator class have raised $13 million in total to grow their businesses even more.

StatMuse, an online AI-based program that serves up and allows users to easily share sports statistics, raised $10 million in Series A funding from some big players in the investment and sports industries. Among them are Allen & Company and former NBA commissioner David Stern.

“Sports is, by itself, the international language, but StatMuse has taken a giant leap forward, transforming sports statistics into meaningful, storytelling prose,” said Stern.

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StatMuse plans to use the investment to expand into new sports and broaden the reach of its sports media and entertainment platform in 2016.

The other graduated company from Disney Accelerator, Naritiv, announced that it has raise $3 million in Series A funding Naritiv is the first media company born and currently living solely on Snapchat. It’s goal is to create mobile-first content that can spread to other social network platforms. Thanks to the company’s intelligence and software informing Snapchatters of what type of content to create, its network and its users grab more than 16 billion views per month.

Some of its early clients included Freeform (the new name for ABC Family), Coca Cola, Fox, Marriott, Sphero, and Redken/L’OREAL who all worked with Naritiv to create smart Snapchat campaigns.

Moving forward, the funds raised by Naritiv will go to further developing the company’s technology and expanding the team in order to reach new consumers and help brands thrive on Snapchat.

Disney Accelerator clearly has made some little startups into some serious companies that might dominate the entertainment and media landscape in the near future. The success story of Sphero, another company that graduated from incubation, went on to make millions creating what we now know of as BB-8 on-screen and in our homes.

StatMuse and Naritiv are more examples of that new wave of tech and entertainment coming together for more entertaining experiences for us.

I see nothing to be afraid of, Elon!

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