Media industry leaders unveil [cafeteria] to enable generation teen with funding led by Collaborative Fund and Imaginary Ventures

Bertelsmann and Guy Oseary also participated in a multimillion dollar seed round for the culture-tech platform, enabling teens to shape the brands they love and earn for their insights.

NEW YORK, Oct. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- [cafeteria] has launched as the first insights production platform for generation teen, making them active participants in the success of the companies they love. Founded by media and tech industry leaders Rishi Malhotra (Luminary, JioSaavn, HBO), Mark Silverstein (Luminary, HuffPost, Spotify), and Leeann Sheely (Luminary, JioSaavn), a multimillion-dollar seed round was led by Collaborative Fund and Imaginary Ventures with additional participation by Bertelsmann and music mogul Guy Oseary.

Emerging from a three-month beta period today, [cafeteria] enables immediate and valuable communication between teens and brands through a dedicated iOS app and real time insights dashboard called "Albums."

Since soft-launching in August 2024, [cafeteria] has on-boarded teens across 60 cities in the U.S. The teens are talking about more than 200 brands on the platform, generating more than 30,000 insights around Brand Alignment, Audience, Purchase History, Market Positioning, Share of Wallet, Influencers and Competitors across lifestyle, fashion, beauty, food, personal finance and automotive.

"We believe in empowering the next generation to actively shape the future. [cafeteria] provides teens with a unique platform to influence the brands they care about while gaining valuable skills and insights," said Andrew Montgomery, Partner at Collaborative Fund. "Collab Fund's history of investing in brands at the nexus of the cultural zeitgeist leads us to believe that [cafeteria] has the potential to be as impactful as our investments in Reddit, Sweetgreen and Lyft."

The app experience is driven by texts and voice notes. Teens match with brands they want to talk about, are invited to a private set of questions (called "Tables"), earn for their time, and gain insights into the quality of their work. [cafeteria] is available in the iOS app store and currently has a waitlist (unless referred by an active [cafeteria] teen).

Teens are talking about everything from what they would change if they were CEO of Starbucks, to which celebrity Nike should work with next (Adam Sandler is just as popular as Taylor Swift, Drake and Sabrina Carpenter), to how they would spend $100 at the mall. Teens are invited to Tables based on their interests and spend an average of 5 minutes per table session. The platform is private for teens and contrarian to social media. All user identities are blind to brand clients, which can only see gender, age and zip code.

For brands, insights are synthesized and editorialized into Albums that are always on and asynchronous. Customized [cafeteria] Albums feature insights like: "Edikted, Zara, Adidas and Skims are breaking through as brands that teen girls want to try next" and "Teens will pay an average of $2.01 for guacamole at Chipotle." and "On average, teens say $314 is what they would pay to see their favorite artist."

Andrew Maxman, Principal at Imaginary Ventures, says, "At Imaginary we think almost all day about customer-centricity. On the one hand, you have this incredibly beautiful and customer-centric product creating an entirely new experience and reward ecosystem for young people; and on the other hand, [cafeteria] brings brands even closer to the culture and desires of their customers in a way that really hasn't previously been possible. This goes way beyond scraping or listening; this is as close as you can get to a pure two-sided conversation, and we think it will enable brands to spot patterns before they emerge as trends. The customer is at the heart of all of this, which is why there is such a potent unlock here on both sides. You can't generate such an immense volume of brand-specific zero-party data without having created such a knockout consumer experience. The [cafeteria] team is nailing both at the same time, and that's the beauty."

CEO and founder, Rishi Malhotra said: "We envisioned [cafeteria] as a production platform to enable teens to upskill, earn for their time, and be brilliant contributors to the companies they interact with most. As entrepreneurs, we have always been in the business of culture. As parents, we believe time should be valued and rewarded positively. Our team and investors are proud to deliver a platform that is private, authentic, and being described as rejuvenating. We are building [cafeteria] to be a cultural essential to teens and enterprises."

Malhotra continued: "Our long term vision is to become a teen operating system. Today, teens match with the brands they choose. Soon, teens will be able to apply to brand tables, invest their earnings and collaborate on brand-enabled projects. By enabling a continuous relationship between teens and enterprises, [cafeteria] establishes a new and healthy creative economy."

The world class founding team, which also includes Clint Balcom (Luminary, JioSaavn), Yonatan Kassar (Pixie Lane), Ryan Peterson (Lottery.com), Josiah Heigel (JioSaavn) and Mia Malhotra (Class of 2026), has taken the company from concept to launch in 9 months, now backed by some of the most esteemed investors in consumer, technology, and AI.

[cafeteria] was launched in 2024 to enable teens to shape the brands they love while earning for their insights. [cafeteria] is the first insights production platform for teens to contribute to a new and healthy creative economy. For brands, [cafeteria] is a channel for immediate communication with Generation Teen, delivering always on, real time insights across Brand Alignment, Audience, Purchase History, Market Positioning, Share of Wallet, Influencers and Competitors.

The platform's multimillion-dollar seed round was led by Collab Fund (Lyft, Whoop, Sweetgreen, Kickstarter), Imaginary Ventures (Skims, Glossier, Daily Harvest, FarFetch, and Stripe), Bertelsmann BII, and legendary music manager and investor Guy Oseary (partner in Sound Ventures, manager for Madonna and U2).

Rishi Malhotra (Founder and CEO), who was previously named to Rolling Stone's Future 25 and Billboard's International Power Players, co-founded Saavn, acquired by Reliance Jio to become JioSaavn, where he developed projects with U2, Beyonce, Nas, Marshmello and many others. Malhotra was also previously CEO of Luminary Podcast Network, where he helped shape its vision as the premiere audio platform for world class talent, including Dave Chappelle. He began his career in media at HBO, where he built and launched HBO On Demand.

Leeann Sheely (Co-founder and Chief Design Officer) was previously VP of Design at Luminary, where she redefined the brand and designed experiences for high-profile personalities, including Lena Dunham, Black Star, and Dave Chappelle. Sheely also previously led global teams responsible for design (including product, brand, and motion design) at JioSaavn as VP of Design, contributing to the company's growth from startup to a Fast Company Most Innovative Company.

Mark Silverstein (Co-founder and Chief Business Officer) was previously the Chief Content officer of Luminary, working closely with top talent like Dave Chappelle, Trevor Noah, Roxane Gay, Guy Raz and many others. Silverstein also led global dealmaking and monetization for news sites such as HuffPost and Yahoo! News. He began his tech and media career at Spotify during its formative growth stages.

Media Contact

Teresa Bigelow, [cafeteria], 1 6462230402, teresa@spiral5.com, https://www.teamcafeteria.com/

SOURCE [cafeteria]