Just before the the holidays, TRACE closed a $2.5 million seed round to fuel the creation of a live-streamed content platform for its autonomous tracking camera, the TRACEr1. Dubbed the TRACE Live Network, the platform will allow users to live-stream or upload their TRACEr1 videos for editing and sharing to social networks. This week at CES, TRACE has inked multiple partnership agreements to help bring exciting content to the Trace Live Network.
Chell and the founding team behind TRACE Live Network might be familiar to BetaKit readers.
Hellaclips, with its focus on skate videos, and SpeedSociety, a street and track racing aggregate, are both highly popular action sports content portals that sync well with the capabilities of the TRACEr1. When paired with a quadcopter, for example, the TRACEr1 can use its video-as-a-sensor technology to lock onto a subject and track their movements, freeing action sports enthusiasts from having to worry about lining up the perfect shot. The Hellaclips and SpeedSociety agreements announced at CES will provide syndication of existing content from the TRACE Live Network, as well as the creation of exclusive content with high profile figures from the skate and auto racing communities. Of course, all content will be shot via TRACEr1 enabled devices.
“With TRACE Live Network we’re focused on partnering with the very best there is when it comes to action sports content,” said TRACE CEO Cameron Chell. “Both SpeedSociety and Hellaclips have an incredible presence in their markets and great teams that we’re very excited to work with. We feel there’s a clear synthesis with what their audience are doing and what we’re able to deliver with our autonomous filming devices.“
Chell and the founding team behind TRACE Live Network might be familiar to BetaKit readers. Chell is the co-founder of Slyce, a Toronto-based visual product search startup, as well as the Calgary-based Business Instincts Group, a venture creation firm that features Vancouver-based UrtheCast in its portfolio.
In addition to the Hellaclips and SpeedSociety partnerships, TRACE has also announced a deal with Frankly Chat, a mobile messaging app. Leveraging the Frankly SDK, TRACE users will now be able to interact with each other while viewing live-streamed Live Network content. To date, Frankly has over 2 million downloads of its chat app.
