Black Dog Ventures in St. Petersburg has acquired a minority stake in a Lakeland content creation platform.
The venture capital firm, led by CEO Scott Kelly, acquired a 20% stake in Lakeland-based Noted Media for an undisclosed amount. Kelly will become Noted’s chairman of the board, according to a release.
Earlier this year, Black Dog acquired a minority stake in a St. Petersburg-based beauty brand. More recently, it acquired a stake in woman-owned music discovery platform Giggidy, also in St. Pete.
Kelly told the Tampa Bay Inno that Black Dog is interested in the music and creator space so artists can use their talent while his company focuses on the investing side.
“What I’ve realized over the course of the last several years is everything was used to sell music in the past; now music is used to sell everything else,” Kelly said.
Jamari McNabb is the founder of Noted Media, and Kelly said he met him at the VC Fast Pitch event at Catapult in Lakeland. Noted is a platform for users to search, collaborate and create, McNabb said.
“Each of us absorbs content daily by way of music, photo, or video. Our team feels that creators who work endlessly to provide us with the content that we’ve gotten so accustomed to seeing do not get the proper recognition they deserve,” McNabb said.
McNabb said there was a synergy between his team and Kelly.
“The partnership made complete sense in every way, and we are excited to see how far we take things together,” he said.
Black Dog is a business accelerator that provides funding, business development and other professional services. Kelly said the company would work for roughly the next year building more traction for Giggidy and Noted to get to a Series A milestone.
“The environment has changed for angel and VC investors in the last two years,” he said. “They want companies with revenue, not just an idea. So we need to begin to monetize these platforms and go to these investors in a position of strength.”
