Chip Austin
Co-founder @ i-Hatch Ventures
Chip Austin is a Series B investor at i-Hatch Ventures focused on Artificial Intelligence and Apps. Chip has advised and built companies in the Technology and Media industries for his entire career. In addition to founding Bertelsmann's E-commerce division, Chip was a member of the senior executive team leading the buyout and restructuring of Prodigy Communications and was a co-founder of McKinsey’s & Co.’s interactive practice, where hespent seven years advising Fortune 500 companies on their technology and media strategies. Prior to that, Chip worked at Morgan Stanley and IBM's PC division. Most recently, Chip was President, CEO, and first employee of Bertelsmann Online, where he was responsible for building Bertelsmann's global e-commerce business by launching parallel services in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, and the US (via Bertelsmann's 50% investment in BarnesandNoble.com). Chip has a degree in Computer Science and Economics from Duke University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
- Total investments:
- 8
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 13%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Chip Austin invests in
Stages Chip Austin invests in
Countries Chip Austin invests in
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Investment Focus
Industry
- Artificial Intelligence 2 (25%)
- Apps 1 (13%)
- Music 1 (13%)
- Video 1 (13%)
- Mobile 1 (13%)
Stage
- Series B 2 (25%)
- Pre-Seed 1 (13%)
- Series A 1 (13%)
- Series C 1 (13%)
- Series D 1 (13%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speechlab is building the category defining platform for speech-to-speech translation for professional creators, over the top media, and online education. The company was incubated at Andrew Ng's AI Fund. Its team have deep experience at building and commercializing new speech technologies. | $2.9M / Pre-Seed / Jun 19, 2024 | ||
| NEX Team is a mobile artificial intelligence company started by a team of second-time entrepreneurs and former Apple, Google, and Facebook engineers and employees. They combine cutting edge mobile, AI, and computer vision technologies with deep community engagement experiences to create utility and joy for athletes and sports communities worldwide.HomeCourt is the first application built with NEX Team’s core technologies. Using only an iPhone camera, HomeCourt can count, track, and chart basketball shots in real-time while providing instant video review and deep statistical analysis. HomeCourt is used by players in 100 countries around the world and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and in Sports Illustrated. It is free to download on the App Store.The company is headquartered in San Jose, California, with another office in Hong Kong, the company has raised $4 million in seed funding. Investors include Mark Cuban, Steve Nash, Jeremy Lin, Sam Hinkie, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment Ventures, and Mandra Capital. | $25M / Series B / Sep 21, 2021 | ||
| Thumbplay is a provider of mobile entertainment in the U.S. Thumbplay.com features licensed music, video and games from several large entertainment companies, including: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.Thumbplay Music — which launched in private beta on January 7, 2010 and in public beta on March 4,2010 — is a cloud-based music service that provides unlimited access to more than 8 million songs under license from every major record label and more than 25,000 indie labels. The mobile app is currently available on BlackBerry and Android smartphones and PCs/Macs. It will be available on iPhone within the first half of 2010.Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. Investors include Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. | $2.5M / Series F / Apr 21, 2010 | ||
| Thumbplay is a provider of mobile entertainment in the U.S. Thumbplay.com features licensed music, video and games from several large entertainment companies, including: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.Thumbplay Music — which launched in private beta on January 7, 2010 and in public beta on March 4,2010 — is a cloud-based music service that provides unlimited access to more than 8 million songs under license from every major record label and more than 25,000 indie labels. The mobile app is currently available on BlackBerry and Android smartphones and PCs/Macs. It will be available on iPhone within the first half of 2010.Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. Investors include Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. | $8M / Series D / Jul 05, 2007 | ||
| Thumbplay is a provider of mobile entertainment in the U.S. Thumbplay.com features licensed music, video and games from several large entertainment companies, including: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.Thumbplay Music — which launched in private beta on January 7, 2010 and in public beta on March 4,2010 — is a cloud-based music service that provides unlimited access to more than 8 million songs under license from every major record label and more than 25,000 indie labels. The mobile app is currently available on BlackBerry and Android smartphones and PCs/Macs. It will be available on iPhone within the first half of 2010.Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. Investors include Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. | $10M / Series C / Oct 30, 2006 | ||
| Thumbplay is a provider of mobile entertainment in the U.S. Thumbplay.com features licensed music, video and games from several large entertainment companies, including: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.Thumbplay Music — which launched in private beta on January 7, 2010 and in public beta on March 4,2010 — is a cloud-based music service that provides unlimited access to more than 8 million songs under license from every major record label and more than 25,000 indie labels. The mobile app is currently available on BlackBerry and Android smartphones and PCs/Macs. It will be available on iPhone within the first half of 2010.Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. Investors include Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. | $7.5M / Series B / Dec 13, 2005 | ||
| Thumbplay is a provider of mobile entertainment in the U.S. Thumbplay.com features licensed music, video and games from several large entertainment companies, including: EMI, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.Thumbplay Music — which launched in private beta on January 7, 2010 and in public beta on March 4,2010 — is a cloud-based music service that provides unlimited access to more than 8 million songs under license from every major record label and more than 25,000 indie labels. The mobile app is currently available on BlackBerry and Android smartphones and PCs/Macs. It will be available on iPhone within the first half of 2010.Headquartered in New York City, Thumbplay was founded in September 2004 by Are Traasdahl and Evan Schwartz. Investors include Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank Capital, i-Hatch Ventures, Redwood Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Meritech, Brookside Capital Partners and Cross Creek Capital. | Series A / Nov 18, 2004 | ||
| See all 8 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About i-Hatch Ventures
i-Hatch Ventures was formed in February of 1999 to provide experienced capital to early-stage technology ventures, primarily in the mobile and broadband sectors.
i-Hatch Ventures Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Chip Austin
Co-founder
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FAQ
What does Chip Austin invest in?
Chip Austin invests primarily in Artificial Intelligence, Apps and Music startups, most often at Series B and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 8 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
How do I contact Chip Austin?
Public channels for Chip Austin include LinkedIn. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Chip Austin last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Chip Austin closed in Jun 2024. Shizune tracks 8 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Sep 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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