Dentsu Inc. (Tokyo: 4324; ISIN: JP3551520004; President & CEO: Tadashi Ishii; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 74,609.81 million yen) announced today that Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I (hereinafter "Dentsu Ventures"), the Company's corporate venture capital fund, has made an investment in LiveLike Inc. (Founder and CEO: Andre Lorenceau; Head Office: New York; hereinafter "LiveLike"), a virtual reality (VR) platform company enabling broadcasters and sports teams to deliver immersive, live sports viewing experiences.

Dentsu Ventures was established in April 2015 with the objectives of investing in ambitious start-up companies that will create an as yet unseen future and furthering open innovation across the Dentsu Group through collaboration with investees. In addition to funding, Dentsu Ventures will support businesses and entrepreneurs by providing problem-solving solutions and resources that are unique to the Group.

Through the LiveLike platform, broadcasters and networks can use existing video facilities to deliver live VR, thus eliminating the need to prepare special VR recording equipment themselves. LiveLike gives viewers the opportunity to watch live sports in virtual reality from a "private suite" that mimics a real VIP suite experience, complete with additional feeds, statistics and a jumbotron showing the game's TV broadcast. With a flexible technology platform and device-agnostic approach, LiveLike is able to create tailored mobile experiences for Gear VR, Google Cardboard and more.

Dentsu Ventures expects further expansion of the sports VR market, and, through cooperation with LiveLike and other technology startups, will explore new business models such as the creation of value-added broadcast content and marketing activities in the VR space.

Looking ahead, the Dentsu Group will continue to provide support for the global expansion of the innovative solutions developed by LiveLike, as well as for other new businesses that the company will develop in the future.
Profiles of LiveLike and Dentsu Ventures and an image of the service provided by LiveLike are provided below.


Image of the service provided by LiveLike

Profile of LiveLike
Company Name:     LiveLike Inc.
Location:    New York, New York, U.S.A.
Representative:     Andre Lorenceau (CEO)
Number of Employees:     12
Line of Business:     Development and provision of live VR technology and services
URL:    http://www.livelikevr.com/

Profile of Dentsu Ventures
Name:     Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I
Total Fund Capital:     Five billion yen
Date of Establishment:    April 2015
Period of Operation:     Seven-year period from April 2015 until March 2022
Investment Regions:    Global investments with a focus on the U.S., Europe and Asia
Investment Stages:    Balanced, wide-ranging investments with the focus on seed and early stage investments, but also including mid-stage and later-stage investments
Investment Areas:    (1)     Areas that can change the marketing and communication business in a broad sense    (2)     New areas other than the above that have a high potential for innovation
URL:    http://dentsu-v.com/



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