Jeffrey Katzenberg and WondrCo partner Sujay Jaswa have raised $460 million for the venture capital company’s seed and venture funds, they announced Tuesday.
The duo touted the moment as “a milestone that allows us to continue supporting visionary entrepreneurs and innovative companies at every stage of their journey,” in a statement posted to their site.
“Our new funds are dedicated to backing the next generation of companies making the internet safer, advancing the future of work, and delighting consumers with innovative software,” the statement continued.
“We are convinced that the coming decade, driven by the transformative power of AI, will be a remarkable period for entrepreneurship. This technology represents the most significant revolution since the mid-2000s, following the rise of cloud computing, social media, and smartphones.
Katzenberg and Jaswa added they “look forward with great optimism… to amplify the missions of exceptional founders and help shape the technological landscape of tomorrow.”
WndrCo was founded by Katzenberg and Jaswa in 2016. Per their site, their yearly goal is to build two companies, make 10 venture investments and 25 seed investments. The company
Katzenberg recently speculated that the cost of making an animated film could drop by as much as 90% with AI.
Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum, the former Disney exec described AI as “a creative tool,” and a “new form of a new paintbrush, or a new camera.”
He admitted that while AI will be “disruptive,” but that it will be an improvement over the “the good old days [when] it took 500 artists five years to make a world class animated movie.” He speculated that with AI, a film would need 10% of a traditional budget.
Katzenberg’s previous venture, the Quibi platform, which was designed to appeal to mobile users, folded mere months after its launch in April 2020.
Last year, in a LinkedIn The Path interview, the veteran producer said, “I’m proud to own the failure. I’m not proud of the failure. But I’m proud of what we tried. It was a moonshot.”
