We’ve Joined the Circus!

Two Bit Circus, that is. Today, we are excited to announce that we’ve co-led a $6.5m Series A investment in Two Bit Circus with our friends at Techstars Ventures.

Our Human Computer Interaction theme continues to evolve and provide fertile ground for investments. One of our core beliefs about HCI is that as computing continues to progress and becomes increasingly common, it will saturate our world in such a way that it will “vanish into ubiquity” and result in people interacting with computing in situations where they may not even be consciously aware that they are doing so.

We believe there is an opportunity to re-invent live entertainment and interactive social events through creatively deployed hardware and software entertainment-focused tools. Events like the Maker Faire, Cirque du Soleil, and even the tech-heavy installations built for the Burning Man festival point towards people’s hunger for these kinds of experiences.

Over the summer, we met Brent Bushnell and Eric Gradman, co-founders of Two Bit Circus. These guys, along with the rest of their incredible team, are the very definition of mad geniuses, and the kinds of folks we aspire to work with.

Two Bit Circus is a modern high-tech circus creating the future of fun. They are artists, inventors, educators, and performers building big games, telling stories with technology, and they make liberal use of lasers, fire, and robots, all in service of reinventing the way people play.

To experience what the company is about first-hand, check out their upcoming STEAM Carnival next weekend in San Francisco, November 6 – 9 at Pier 48 at AT&T Park.

One other awesome item that Brent & Eric have on their resumes prior to founding Two Bit Circus is the work they did on the Rube Goldberg OK GO video This Too Shall Pass while at Synn Labs:

We are looking forward to working with the team at Two Bit Circus to reinvent live and interactive entertainment!