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Lightspeed Venture Partners has hired Moritz Baier-Lentz as a partner and its head of gaming as the firm formalizes its investment practice in the gaming industry and expands its presence in Los Angeles.  

Why it matters: The multibillion-dollar gaming industry continues to grow and thrive with mega-mergers, the success of new studios and the rise of new platforms and technologies. 

"There are very healthy fundamentals here with generational tailwinds," Baier-Lentz tells Kerry. "Every person who grows up today grows up with gaming."

Catch up quick: Lightspeed hasn't had a dedicated gaming team until now, but it has a long history of investing in the sector. Since 2006, it's invested more than $300 million of capital and made more than 30 investments in the gaming industry. 

Details: Baier-Lentz is a former professional gamer. He worked as a vice president at Goldman Sachs, starting and co-leading its global gaming practice. In 2020, he joined Bitkraft Ventures, a gaming-focused firm, as a partner.

Baier-Lentz says the job happened "serendipitously." The opportunity arose after he ran into Lightspeed partner Nicole Quinn at a yoga class while vacationing in Greece. 

1 big thing: Lightspeed's gaming push

Photo illustration of Moritz Baier-Lentz with Lightspeed's logo.

Photo illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photo: Courtesy of Lightspeed

LIV Golf appears to finally have its media partner, but it's one that probably nobody could have predicted: The CW.

Why it's the BFD: The anticipated partnership offers the upstart golf tour access to a younger audience and, in turn, offers a live sports option for Nexstar Media, The CW's parent.  

The intrigue: On the surface, they appear to be a mismatched pair: the Saudi-backed big-money golf tour coupled with CW's roster of teen dramas and DC superheroes. 

Yes, but: Dig deeper, though, and you can see the logic. The CW has some 220 affiliates around the country and LIV Golf would get prime promotion space. For The CW, the deal achieves its new owner’s goals of broadening its audience at a cheap cost.

Of note: News of this deal broke in the most unconventional way. 

David Feherty, a LIV golf analyst who dabbles in comedy, recently hinted to a West Palm Beach crowd during one of his shows that the Saudi-backed league was closing in on a deal with the network. 

His comments were first reported yesterday by The Palm Beach Post and were later backed up by reports in Sports Illustrated and others that an agreement was close. 

Per other reports, LIV Golf would be the one paying The CW to broadcast its matches. Representatives for LIV Golf declined to comment, while The CW did not respond to our request for comment.

The big picture: Since launching last year with high-profile PGA defections like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka, LIV has struggled to gain the wide audience it desired. 

Its inaugural season last year was streamed exclusively over YouTube and its own website, drawing paltry audience numbers compared with PGA Tour events. 

LIV executives told Tim last year that, because it was instituting a new style of play, they were more focused on getting the league up and running without waiting for a media partner. 

"Our approach has been to launch the product and push it out there for the fans and then have an eye on 2023 and beyond," LIV's chief media officer, Will Staeger, said last summer. 

What's next: LIV Golf begins its first full year of play on Feb. 24 with its first event in Mexico.

2. The BFD: Strange bedfellows 

(Left to right) Bre-Z and Daniel Ezra of "All American" and Geffri Maya and Peyton Alex Smith of "All American: Homecoming" at The CW Network's 2022 Upfront Presentation. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

Goldenset Collective, a new startup cofounded by former Niche and Brat executives, has raised $10 million to help digital creators build and expand their businesses. 

Why it matters: Media startup veterans see lucrative returns in financially backing early-stage creators.

How it works: Goldenset Collective plans to both invest capital in individual creators and provide operational support, such as HR, legal, marketing and business development. 

The company has done seven deals so far, deploying about $1 million. Its creator portfolio includes Audrey Hope, Chris Sturniolo, Paige Taylor and Amanda Steele. 

It invests about $100,000 to $150,000 per creator, on average, CEO Darren Lachtman tells Kerry.

Details: The funding round was led by A.Capital and Lerer Hippeau. Kevin Durant's Thirty Five Ventures, SV Angel, Advancit, Beliade, Habitat Partners, Cassius and others participated.

3. Investing in digital creators

Illustration of a social media "like" icon made out of a $100 bill.

Carry1st, a South African social games publisher, raised $27m. Bitkraft Ventures led, and was joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Konvoy Ventures, TTV Capital, Alumni Ventures, Lateral Capital and Kepple Ventures. https://axios.link/3wcSDLf

Discord acquired Gas, the poll-based social app. Its team of four will be joining Discord. https://axios.link/3ZDD5Od

Semafor plans to buy out Sam Bankman-Fried's ownership as it explores raising new money. He contributed $10m of Semafor's $25m raise, per NYT. https://axios.link/3GQHSmx

4. Deal flow

Imagine Entertainment promoted Justin Wilkes to president. https://axios.link/3XHPHC5

Warner Music Group hired Tim Matusch as EVP of strategy and operations. Like new CEO Robert Kyncl, he worked at YouTube. https://axios.link/3HfCUkZ

DNEG hired Adriano Rinaldi as general manager of its VFX and animation studio in Vancouver. https://axios.link/3kriqMU

Hallmark Media hired BritBox's Emily Powers as EVP of streaming and digital platforms. https://axios.link/3XyiWa8

Kerry Sanders retired after 32 years at NBC News. https://axios.link/3XjvNNX

Antony Root is leaving Warner Bros. Discovery at the end of March after 11 years leading original programming for HBO Europe and EMEA. https://axios.link/3kreegj

5. Movin' on up (or out)

AI art generators spark multiple copyright lawsuits (THR)

"A group of artists are suing AI art generators Stability AI, Midjourney and DeviantArt for using their work to train AI tools. The first-of-its-kind suit accuses the companies of copyright infringement for using billions of images downloaded from the internet without artists' consent," Winston Cho writes.

Microsoft is laying off 10,000 employees (Axios)

"Microsoft notified employees on Wednesday it will cut 10,000 workers, or less than 5% of its workforce, as it joins other large tech firms in paring staff after years of growth," Ina Fried reports

"Musk appears unaware of what he's actually broken: the company culture that built Twitter into one of the world's most influential social networks, the policies that attempted to keep that platform safe, and the trust of users who populate it every day with their conversations, breaking news, and weird jokes," Zoe Schiffer, Casey Newton and Alex Heath report. 

6. Channel surfing

Illustration of a pair of sunglasses with lenses that look like tv screens.

One way Elon Musk is making money for Twitter: auctioning off office furniture and other items from its San Francisco HQ with a total of 631 lots. The auction has sparked a flurry of tweets and media coverage, as well as many texts to Kerry.

"Didn't you have something like this at your wedding?" a friend texted this morning with a link to the NYT story with a Twitter neon as the top photo. The answer is yes.

My husband, Mike (@mcwm), and I met on Twitter. In 2019, when I was at Twitter NYC for an event, I spotted a light-up bird and tweeted if I could rent it for my wedding (I wasn't engaged — yet). Former CMO Leslie Berland replied. And about three years later, just prior to the takeover by Elon Musk, it happened thanks to the kind events team.

1 fun thing: Buy a neon Twitter bird for $23K

Mike Murphy, a neon Twitter bird and Kerry Flynn

🎧 Out now: "Elon Musk vs. Twitter Part V: Cracks in the Empire." The season finale examines Musk's first months as CEO of Twitter and the unique challenges facing each of his companies. Listen.

Media erratum: We made a mistake in the disclosure on our Tegna story yesterday. Axios is owned by Cox Enterprises, not Cox Communications.

@tim_bays: "History of the World, Part I." I still can't believe we're actually getting a "Part II," ruining what was one of the best jokes in comedy history. 

@kerrymflynn: "Plane" at AMC Theatres. I'll watch anything with Gerard Butler.

✏️ Thanks to Michael Flaherty for editing and Jay Bennett for copy editing this newsletter.

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January 18, 2023

1 big thing: Lightspeed's gaming push