Incubator Shelter Ventures Makes Debut
Another week, another incubator.
The latest addition to the Tech Coast is Shelter Ventures, a combination incubator and venture capital fund aimed at supporting companies creating products and services for distributing content on the Internet.
The Westwood firm, being unveiled today, hopes to stand out among incubators such as Pasadena’s Idealab by focusing on the new-media industry. But instead of backing companies creating actual new-media content, Shelter Ventures will focus on building the infrastructure new-media firms will need, such as digital asset management systems.
“In order for content to be distributed in digital form, a tremendous amount of other businesses need to be created and funded,” said Kevin Wall, the former vice president of Internet strategy firm IXL Enterprises in Atlanta. Wall founded Shelter Ventures with Art Bilger, former president of New World Communications and an early investor in Akamai Technologies.
Shelter Ventures already has 20 employees incubating three firms. Wall and Bilger expect to raise $300 million for their venture capital fund in the next four months.