Big Stage Entertainment Secures $2.7 Million in Series B Funding from Original Investors, Bringing Total Raised to $10.6 Million

Mission Ventures, Selby Ventures and Tech Coast Angels invest to accelerate Big Stage’s sales, marketing and R&D for its 3D photo-real avatar facial modeling technology

LOS ANGELES Big Stage Entertainment, Inc., a media technology company enabling consumer projection of self into digital life, has secured an additional $2.7 million in Series B funding from Mission Ventures , Selby Ventures and TechCoast Angels, its original investors. This funding brings Big Stage Entertainment’s total raised to $10.6 million. The Series B round remains open for an additional $3.3 million from outside investors until June 8 . Big Stage Entertainment will use this funding to accelerate research and development as well as sales and marketing for its 3D photo-real avatar facial modeling technology.

“Big Stage Entertainment offers the most realistic 3D facial avatar-creation technology that’s accessible to consumers today. Our service is built on a hub strategy to provide consumers a single online location for the projection of self into digital life,” said Phil Ressler, Big Stage Entertainment CEO. “With this investment, we will continue to push the limits of participatory media to meet the evolving needs of brands and content owners who recognize the immense potential of enabling audiences to star in media experiences created by themselves or others.”

“Big Stage Entertainment brings the deeply personal phenomenon of projection of self to mainstream consumers, breaking new ground in interactive entertainment,” said Robert Kibble, managing partner, Mission Ventures. “Mission Ventures led this Series B investment out of recognition of the huge long-term opportunity in helping Big Stage Entertainment realize its full potential.”

Big Stage Entertainment’s scalable product offerings enable any third party to feature an animated, 3-D likeness of a user to enhance everything from entertainment to collaboration and retail. Third parties can integrate Big Stage Entertainment’s proprietary PortableYou 3-D facial modeling system seamlessly into video games, virtual worlds, Web sites, mobile apps, kiosk-based systems and more. The BackStage white label product offers a turnkey solution to partners who want to leverage the same 3-D face modeling technology as part of high impact participatory experiences under their own brands, with the added benefit of easy-to-use social sharing tools to maximize viral effect.

BigStage @ctor creation is available free to consumers at http://www.bigstage.com/, which also serves as a central hub for @ctor storage and management. Providing consumer access to previously created @ctors allows Big Stage Entertainment business clients to benefit from audience accumulation and long-term recurring consumer use. Big Stage Entertainment’s clients include Sony BMG, Lionsgate, Funcom, Intel, Stephen J. Cannell Productions, GGL Global Gaming, The Venue Network, Icarus Studios, Virtual Space Entertainment and Splash News.

About Big Stage Entertainment, Inc.

Big Stage Entertainment, Inc. is a media technology company that enables the projection of self into digital life. With Big Stage Entertainment products and services, consumers can create a photorealistic, 3-D, animated @ctor of themselves to insert into digital media including video games, video clips and still images, as well as to represent themselves in online communities. Through its PortableYou program, Big Stage Entertainment enables third parties to seamlessly integrate its 3D facial modeling system into video games, virtual worlds, Web sites, mobile apps, kiosk-based systems and more to personalize everything from entertainment to collaboration to retail. At BigStage.com, anyone can generate a free, animated 3-D @ctor from a few digital photos and save it to use in any Big Stage-enabled media. Headquartered in South Pasadena, CA, Big Stage Entertainment investors include Mission Ventures, Selby Ventures and Tech Coast Angels. For more information, please visit http://www.bigstage.com/.

Source: Big Stage Entertainment, Inc.