Strauss Zelnick
Partner @ ZMC
New York, United States
Strauss Zelnick is a seed investor at ZMC in New York focused on FinTech and Social Media. Strauss Zelnick, a partner in ZelnickMedia since 2001, became Chairman of Take-Two in March 2007 and Chief Executive Officer in January 2011. Mr. Zelnick is currently Chairman of ITN Networks and serves on the boards of directors of Naylor LLC, Alloy, Inc. and Starwood Property Trust, Inc. In August 2013, Mr. Zelnick was elected Vice Chairman of the Entertainment Software Association, the interactive entertainment industry’s trade association. In 2014, Mr. Zelnick was elected Chairman of the Entertainment Software Association, the interactive entertainment industry’s trade association. Prior to forming ZelnickMedia, Mr. Zelnick was President and Chief Executive Officer of BMG Entertainment, a $4.7 billion music and entertainment company. Mr. Zelnick's appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer of BMG Entertainment followed his tenure as President and Chief Executive Officer of the company's North American business unit from 1994 through 1998. Before joining BMG Entertainment, Mr. Zelnick was President and Chief Executive Officer of Crystal Dynamics, a leading producer and distributor of interactive game software. Prior to that, he spent four years as President and Chief Operating Officer of 20th Century Fox, where he managed all aspects of the worldwide motion picture and distribution business. Previously, he spent three years at Vestron Inc. as a senior executive, and rose to become President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Zelnick also served as Vice President, International Television for Columbia Pictures. Mr. Zelnick holds an MBA and a JD from Harvard University and a BA from Wesleyan University. He is an associate member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, has served on the Board of Directors of the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America and is a Trustee Emeritus of Wesleyan University.
- Total investments:
- 14
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 7%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Strauss Zelnick invests in
Stages Strauss Zelnick invests in
Countries Strauss Zelnick invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Round size
- Seed
- $395k–$4.5M
- Series A
- $1.4M–$7.5M
Investment Focus
Industry
- FinTech 3 (21%)
- Social Media 3 (21%)
- Enterprise Software 3 (21%)
- Gaming 2 (14%)
- Mobile 2 (14%)
Stage
- Seed 6 (43%)
- Series A 4 (29%)
- Angel 2 (14%)
- Series E 1 (7%)
- Private Equity 1 (7%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Players’ Lounge is a real money gaming platform built for video games. Gamers can wager on their own performance or stake others in competitive titles like Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Madden. Whether you’re playing or spectating, Players’ Lounge makes every match a chance to win real money — by betting on your own skill or backing the players youbelieve in.We’re capturing the next generation of bettors — digital natives who prefer interactive, creator-driven experiences over traditional sports. Players’ Lounge turns every match and livestream into a high-stakes opportunity, merging gaming, streaming, and social wagering into one immersive ecosystem. | $3M / Seed / Mar 28, 2019 | ||
| Prove is a smartphone-based identity verification startup that specializes in providing phone-centric and API marketplace solutions. Its phone-centric solutions enable its customers to acquire new consumers and engage with their existing consumers by removing friction while bolstering security and enhancing consumer privacy and consumer choice. | $23.5M / Series E / Jan 05, 2017 | ||
| Ready democratizes gaming with The Ready Games- DIY game tournaments- and Ready Maker, a platform for gaming and robotics. Ready opens games creation to the world, with over 1 million makers and players. The Ready Games app delivers three, brand new mobile mini-games every week that anyone can play to win cash prizes. Ready Maker provides acreative platform that builds in the mediums of their client's time - mobile games, robotics, VR/AR. | $575K / Angel / Apr 30, 2016 | ||
| Greatist is the next-generation media company in health for healthy-minded millenials. With an emphasis on super high-quality fitness, health, and happiness content (every fact cited by a scientific study, every article approved by multiple experts) over quantity, Greatist engages an educated, social, and mobile audience through its uniquelyfriendly, fun, and shareable voice. Launched in 2011, it's now the fastest-growing site in the health space, reaching over 5 million readers every month with its mission to help the world think of health in a healthier way. | $4.5M / Seed / Jan 20, 2016 | ||
| Players’ Lounge is a real money gaming platform built for video games. Gamers can wager on their own performance or stake others in competitive titles like Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Madden. Whether you’re playing or spectating, Players’ Lounge makes every match a chance to win real money — by betting on your own skill or backing the players youbelieve in.We’re capturing the next generation of bettors — digital natives who prefer interactive, creator-driven experiences over traditional sports. Players’ Lounge turns every match and livestream into a high-stakes opportunity, merging gaming, streaming, and social wagering into one immersive ecosystem. | Angel / Dec 09, 2015 | ||
| As a former creative agency, our team worked with top-tier clients to produce content for hundreds of projects and campaigns. We loved working with our clients, but hated the manual process of planning projects, tracking progress, collecting feedback, and getting approvals from the right stakeholders. The entire process was slow, inefficient, and abad experience for everyone involved.Our team searched high and low for an existing software solution that could solve our problems, but could find none. So, much like many of our clients, our team hacked together our own process utilizing a disparate set of software tools.Finally, after laboring through this process for some time, we decided to take our collective experience and build an end-to-end software solution specifically tailored to solve the everyday challenges of managing creative work.Launched in 2016, Slope is the product of hundreds of hours of research and collaboration with countless marketing and creative teams. We packaged all of the best-in-class ideas into one dynamic software, specifically built to ease the pain associated with the entire content planning and approval process. | $395K / Seed / Mar 31, 2015 | ||
| Lua specializes in powering HIPAA compliant messaging for the healthcare industry. It offers a mobile coordination solution that provides immediate access to the people and information needed to get a job done, anywhere. The company was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in New York, New York. | $7.5M / Series A / May 28, 2014 | ||
| Electric Objects is a startup that makes picture frame-like computers that can display high-resolution artwork from the internet. It is the maker of the EO1, a computer designed to bring the beauty of the Internet into your home. The EO1 is a digital canvas that is created by using an inexpensive monitor and a computer called a Raspberry Pi.The display is controlled by a simple web app that allows users to select images online and to change them instantly, with a click.Jake Levine, Electric Objects' CEO and founder, started the company as a side project: Levine couldn't find a way to display art on his walls the way he wanted to, so he hacked one together himself. When a user orders an EO1, the user receives a 23-inch, high-definition screen with an integrated computer, an Android operating system, and a single cord. It comes with a custom white or black frame. Users can use the Electric Objects mobile app locations to control what art appears on the screen. However a user will never be interact directly with the screen itself, because it's not meant to be like a tablet, a phone, or a television. | $1.7M / Seed / Apr 30, 2014 | ||
| Fundera provides expert insights and tailored options—from loans to credit cards to bank accounts—so business owners can shop and compare financial choices they often don’t know they have. We partner throughout every stage of their business, helping them weigh the best-fit financial options based on their current needs and eligibility. Through thecombination of our proprietary technology and financial expertise, business owners are able to make their smartest business decisions yet. | $3.4M / Series A / Jan 01, 2014 | ||
| Enigma Technologies, a New York-based data science company, is building the future of small business intelligence. Enigma provides timely, accurate insights on the identity, activity, and risk profile of every small business. From evaluating insurance risk to fraud prevention, Enigma helps businesses better serve their SMB customers. Leadingorganizations, including American Express, Truist, and PayPal depend on Enigma to power the daily decisions that matter. | Seed / Feb 27, 2013 | ||
| See all 14 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About ZMC
ZMC is a leading investor in and operator of media, communications and entertainment businesses. We create value through thought leadership, operational excellence and investment discipline. We work collaboratively with our partners in a culture of transparency, integrity, high performance, teamwork, service and kindness.
ZMC Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Andrew Vogel
Co-Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner
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Chris Wagner
Operating Partner
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John Moakley
Operating Partner
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Ripan Kadakia
Partner
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Strauss Zelnick
Partner
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FAQ
What does Strauss Zelnick invest in?
Strauss Zelnick invests primarily in FinTech, Social Media and Enterprise Software startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 14 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What round sizes does Strauss Zelnick invest in?
Strauss Zelnick typically joins rounds of $395k–$4.5M at Seed and $1.4M–$7.5M at Series A. These are whole funding-round sizes, not Strauss Zelnick's own check, which is rarely disclosed: the 10th–90th percentile of the confirmed public funding rounds Strauss Zelnick took part in.
How do I contact Strauss Zelnick?
Public channels for Strauss Zelnick 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 Strauss Zelnick last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Strauss Zelnick closed in Mar 2019. Shizune tracks 14 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 Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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