Venture capital firm Rokk3r Fuel ExO adds three companies to its portfolio in Q4, breaking into robotics, XR; expanding into Europe

The companies are Spotify-backed Soundtrack Your Brand; Silicon Valley robotics startup OhmniLabs; and Richard Branson-backed Emerge

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Rokk3r Fuel ExO

Nov 19, 2019, 07:00 ET

MIAMI, Fla., Nov. 19, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Venture capital firm Rokk3r Fuel ExO, led by former Bank of America Merrill Lynch managing director Jeff Ransdell, has added three companies to its portfolio this quarter, participating in investment rounds altogether totaling more than $20 million. To date, Rokk3r Fuel has invested in a dozen early-stage startups, including Bolt Mobility, Taxfyle, and AdMobilize. Rokk3r Fuel's newest portfolio companies are Soundtrack Your Brand, OhmniLabs and Emerge, marking the firm's first foray into Europe and the extended reality (XR) and robotics spaces.

Soundtrack Your Brand provides music licensing for businesses. Based in Stockholm, Sweden, and led by Beats Music co-founder Ola Sars, the company was founded in 2013 with Spotify. It is active in 70 markets worldwide and boasts a catalog of 50 million tracks. In 2019, Fast Company magazine named Soundtrack Your Brand one of the world's most innovative companies in music. SYB backers include top-tier European funds Balderton Capital and Industrifonden.

OhmniLabs, based in Silicon Valley, is an end-to-end robotics company, providing robotics technology solutions and hardware across more than 25 countries. The company was founded in 2015 and is led by Thuc Vu, a Stanford Ph.D. and serial entrepreneur whose past ventures include Katango, which was backed by Kleiner Perkins and sold to Google in 2011. OhmniLabs counts among its B2B clients All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan's largest airline, and Ball Aerospace, the aircraft manufacturer subsidiary of publicly traded Ball Corporation.

Emerge is redefining the concept of teleportation, with a first product that allows users to physically touch and feel extended reality (XR) holograms with bare hands, and share them with others from a distance. Founded in 2015, Emerge is backed by Paul Allen's Vulcan Capital and M13 Ventures, whose limited partners include Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, and Hong Kong billionaire Silas Chou.

Rokk3r Fuel's trio of investments in the fourth quarter of 2019 represents the firm's most active investment period to date, and caps off four deals since the close of its second fund, totaling $224 million from a group of Limited Partners that includes a multi-billion private wealth management firm and billionaire real estate investor Moishe Mana.

"We are thrilled for our Limited Partners to have a front-row seat to the development of these amazing companies following their respective raises," said Maggie Vo, CFA®, Rokk3r Fuel General Partner and Chief Investment Officer. "We look forward to cultivating strong partnerships with Soundtrack Your Brand, OhmniLabs and Emerge. Beyond providing capital and access to key business opportunities in the southeastern U.S. and Latin America through our network, we are eager to also provide guidance and mentorship to these promising teams as they continually develop."

About Rokk3r Fuel ExO
Rokk3r Fuel ExO is a venture capital firm investing in early-stage companies propelled by exponential technologies. Founded in 2017, Rokk3r Fuel is industry agnostic in its deal sourcing, targeting instead exceptional entrepreneurs with experience and vision. The firm's "founder focused, investor driven" approach is led by a core team with more than 60 years of combined experience in investment banking, wealth management, and executive leadership. Rokk3r Fuel portfolio companies include Bolt Mobility, Taxfyle, and AdMobilize. Rokk3r Fuel is headquartered in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami, Florida. To learn more, visit rokk3rfuel.com or follow Rokk3r Fuel on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.