Brief - The Hustle

EXTRA, EXTRA: A funding roundup for the whole family

Written by Wes Schlagenhauf | Jun 30, 2020 8:49:58 AM

Child stars, cameras, caregivers: Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.

Today we have a little funding news for kids, adults, and 65-and-betters alike.

For the kids: Viacom leads funding round for Pocket.watch

Kids entertainment platform Pocket.watch has raised $15m in a funding round led by Viacom.

The startup makes videos that target small children with small, digital friendly screens, and they’re coming for your babies.

In addition to Viacom’s ‘strategic investment,’ the two companies will develop and produce long-form and short-form content, and help identify future kiddo creators and talent for digital and TV.

For adults: Light lands $121m, led by Softbank

It’s official. Camera tech company, Light, is the latest to call SoftBank’s massive Vision Fund daddy after it led a $121m Series D for the budding camera startup.

The funding will go toward growing Light’s ultra-high-def mobile phone camera equipment, including its illustrious 16 lens camera (which captures 52 megapixels of ultra-hi-def imagery).

For grandma: Kindly Care scores $5.4m to help with in-home care

With a reported 45m unpaid elder care providers in the US, it’s fair to say the industry of taking care of the nanas and the papas of the world is widely undervalued.

Now, SF-based Kindly Care wants to lend a hand to the marketplace, after raising $5.4m to help pair vetted caregivers with families who need them.

The company will help both sides manage their financial and tax arrangements by acting as a bookkeeper of sorts, because taking care of grams can be expensive, but ya gotta do it.