Nabeel Hyatt Joins Spark Capital

BOSTON and NEW YORK, Feb. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Spark Capital (http://www.sparkcapital.com/) announced today the addition of serial entrepreneur Nabeel Hyatt as Spark's first venture partner. Most recently general manager at Zynga, Hyatt will use his passion and understanding of product design to focus on and guide investments in consumer Web, social and mobile.

"We are delighted to welcome Nabeel to Spark. We have known and admired him for years," said Todd Dagres, founder and general partner of Spark Capital. "He is an authentic entrepreneur and a great complement to the team."

Hyatt joins Spark from Zynga, a company he became a part of through the acquisition of social gaming pioneer Conduit Labs, where he was founder and CEO. The acquisition founded Zynga Boston and led to the development of Adventure World, an exploration adventure game that peaked at 16 million monthly users.

"Spark Capital understands the opportunities within the consumer and social Web, a market I've spent most of my career building," said Hyatt. "Joining Spark now provides me with an amazing opportunity to empower entrepreneurs who are passionate, innovative and out to change things forever."

Originally a designer and engineer, Hyatt spent more than 15 years operating in a variety of markets, including consumer electronics, mobile, sports media, social networking and social gaming.

Earlier in his career, Hyatt was vice president of product development for Ambient Devices, an MIT Media Lab startup creating glanceable technology, embedding Internet information in everyday objects such as light bulbs, mirrors, refrigerators and umbrellas to make the physical environment an interface to digital media. Ambient was named in Ideas of the Year by The New York Times in 2002, and Hyatt was a nominee for the Top Innovators Under 30 by MIT Technology Review.

In the go-go 90's, Nabeel was COO of Teamtalk plc, a publicly traded online sports content and technology company he joined through the acquisition of internetsoccer.com. Hyatt studied computer science at Purdue University and design at Maryland Institute, College of Art.

Hyatt blogs at http://nabeelhyatt.com/

About Spark Capital

Spark Capital is a venture capital firm based in Boston, Massachusetts with investments focused on the conflux of the media, entertainment and technology industries. Over the last decade, the Spark team has been instrumental in the development of new markets and market leaders such as Akamai Technologies, Qtera, Aether Systems, Novatel Wireless, Twitter, Altius Education, AdMeld, Foursquare, Verivue and Tumblr. With deep experience and $980 million under management, Spark Capital provides world-class entrepreneurs and revolutionary companies with the resources to succeed in today's marketplace. For more information, visit www.sparkcapital.com.

SOURCE Spark Capital