Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s Impact Closes $15 Million in Series B Funding

Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Impact, an online professional network for film and TV crews, has closed $15 million in series B funding.

Impact, led by CEO Tyler Mitchel, will expand its product and services with new funding led by Shasta Ventures.

The new funding will be used to add talent to the existing product and engineering teams that will enhance the company’s tools that facilitate collaboration among productions and crews. This seamless communication aims to connect people in the industry with talent faster and prioritizes inclusion.

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The funding was led by Shasta Ventures with participation from Benchmark and strategic investors including Skydance, Riviera Partners, Snap chairman Michael Lynton, Working Title Films producer and co-chairman Eric Fellner and “Billions” creators Brian Koppelman and David Levien alongside Roku CEO Anthony Wood. As a result of the round, Jason Pressman, Shasta Ventures’ managing director, will join the company’s board.

“We launched Impact to empower the people who bring stories to life,” Grazer said of the funding. “We want crew to have the ability to access more opportunities and streamline how productions connect and collaborate.”

“There’ve been so many incredible technological advances over the years in digital effects, cameras, editing, and streaming, but the actual mounting and producing of shows hasn’t evolved and can’t keep up with the growing demand,” Howard added. “We hope that Impact will make the hard-working crews’ jobs a little easier, and allow productions to run a bit smoother and maybe even wrap days earlier.”

Impact, which has 25,000 active users and has helped 60 productions source crew for 130 roles, went public in the Atlanta market in September and has raised over $21 million in total funding.

“Entertainment is a network-driven industry that does not have an online network,” Mitchell said. “With production spending continuing to break global records and $4.6B being invested to build new studios and hundreds of state of the art sound stages around the world, now is the time for us to accelerate our development of network-driven features that will connect the industry. Our network will provide more opportunities for crew, real-time visibility into the available workforce and facilities for studios and producers, and tools designed to save people the most valuable commodity in the industry —  time.”