Brainbase Nabs $8M in New Financing

Brainbase has announced an $8 million in Series A financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Nosara Capital.

Participation includes Alpha Edison, Struck Capital, Bonfire Ventures, FJ Labs, Spencer Lazar, Michael Stoppelman, former senior vice president of engineering at Yelp, Jenny Fleiss, co-founder of Rent The Runway and David Fraga, president of InVision. 

“We need to stay focused on building the best platform for brands that own and license their IP,” says Nate Cavanaugh, co-founder and chief executive officer, Brainbase. “With a strong bench of investors and advisors who believe in our vision to make the intellectual property industry more open, efficient and accessible, we are prepared for our next stage of growth. In 2020, Brainbase plans to nearly double in size, making key hires across sales, product and engineering in the U.S. and Europe.”

Bessemer Venture Partners, the company’s lead investor, has a history of investing in technology companies, such as DocuSign, LinkedIn, Shopify, Twitch and Yelp, and Nosara invests in online marketplaces around the globe. 

"We’re incredibly impressed with how quickly Brainbase has built industry-leading software tools to help brands more efficiently manage and monetize their intellectual property,” says Ian Loizeaux, founding partner, Nosara Capital. “The core Assist platform is being used by top global brands, which gives Brainbase a significant advantage in building a marketplace to connect the fragmented landscape of licensors and licensees. We’re excited to support Nate and the team as they execute on their ambitious product roadmap." 

As the creator of the IP licensing platform Brainbase Assist, the company aims to use this funding to build a payments feature for licensors to expedite payments from licensees, as well as build Marketplace, a new solution to showcase, connect and close deals with globally recognized and emerging brands, celebrities, athletes and influencers entirely online. Marketplace is currently accepting new waitlist sign-ups at brainbase.com/marketplace.

“Brainbase is bringing the archaic, paper shuffling world of IP management into the 21st century,” says Kent Bennett, partner, Bessemer Venture Partners. “We’re thrilled to partner with this team as they help owners of IP assets capture more value while saving a boatload of time and effort.”

The round follows a successful time of growth for Brainbase, with recent customer acquisitions including Kathy Ireland Worldwide, MDR Brand Management, BuzzFeed and Bonnier. These new brands join existing customers such as Sanrio, the global lifestyle brand best known for Hello Kitty, SYBO Games and other globally-recognized brands on Brainbase’s roster. Kathy Ireland has also joined Brainbase as global chief brand ambassador.