Jessica Alba Joins Planet of the Apps

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Entrepreneur and actress Jessica Alba has signed on as a mentor and advisor for Planet of the Apps, the new unscripted series co-produced by Propagate and Apple. Renowned Silicon Valley venture firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, the first institutional investors in Snapchat, also joins the series as the venture capital partner.  The announcement was made by executive producers Ben Silverman and Howard T. Owens of Propagate.

Alba, who will also serve as an executive producer, joins Gwyneth Paltrow, will.i.am and Gary Vaynerchuk, who were previously announced as mentors and advisors for the series.  Paltrow and will.i.am will also executive produce the project.

"We are so excited to have Jessica join the Planet of the Apps team as a mentor and executive producing partner. Her business insight and experience as an entrepreneurial visionary will be invaluable to the app developers selected for the series," said Silverman.

"I started The Honest Company because I saw an opportunity in the market for a brand that spoke to conscious consumers and created safe and effective products for every need," said Alba.  "As a mentor on Planet of the Apps, I'm looking forward to meeting entrepreneurs looking to address a problem with an innovative solution, and to help them realize their vision.  I can't wait to see the ideas the app developers bring to the table." 

"We searched far and wide for a venture capital firm at the forefront of the tech industry to partner with on Planet of the Apps, and had many different VC players approach us," said Owens.  "We are very fortunate to have Lightspeed join the series in this capacity.  Lightspeed and Jeremy Liew, who leads the firm's consumer investing practice, are recognized as top investors who can identify and help nurture some of the most lasting and meaningful tech companies in the world.  Our partnership ensures that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for new business creators and that this show is truly the first of its kind."

"Consumer technology has become popular culture, as our portfolio companies like Snapchat have demonstrated," said Jeremy Liew, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. "We're excited to work with Apple and visionaries from the tech and entertainment space to discover and enable the next generation of apps that will also become popular culture."

Lightspeed Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm with over $4 billion in committed capital, focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Consumer and Enterprise sectors. The firm was the first investor in Snapchat and The Honest Company. Other notable consumer technology investments include Nest, Giphy, GrubHub, Stitch Fix, Bonobos and TaskRabbit. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed more than 300 companies globally—many of which have become market leaders—and has seen close to 100 successful IPOs and acquisitions within its portfolio.

Jeremy Liew is a Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, investing primarily in consumer facing companies in the mobile and online space with a particular interest in video, massive-scale social media, commerce and financial services. He has been named to Forbes' Midas List of Top Venture Capitalists multiple times, most recently this year. He is also responsible for several Lightspeed investments which have had successful exits including Playdom (acquired by Disney), Flixster (acquired by Warner Brothers), Kongregate (acquired by GameStop), Slice (acquired by Rakuten) and Serious Business (acquired by Zynga).

Jessica Alba is Founder and Chief Creative Officer of The Honest Company (Honest.com) and Honest Beauty (HonestBeauty.com). She is also an actress, advocate, and New York Times bestselling author. Founded in 2012, The Honest Company was launched with a mission to inspire and empower people to live a happy and healthy life. Honest provides safe and effective products across a wide range of consumer categories, including baby, personal care, home care and vitamins & supplements. Honest Beauty is a comprehensive prestige collection of clean, high performance skincare, makeup and haircare products. Since its inception, the mission-driven Company has donated over five million products and over 11,000 employee participation hours through its Honest to Goodness program. In 2013 Jessica authored the New York Times bestselling book, The Honest Life, a practical guide to inspire a safe and healthy life. Jessica appeared on the cover of Forbes' "Self-Made Women" issue and was among the top twenty of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business, one of CNBC's Next List of Rebels, Leaders and Innovators, and one of Fortune's 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs.

Online applications from app developers interested in participating in Planet of the Apps will be accepted through Wednesday, September 21.  Those interested in applying can visit the series website, https://planetoftheapps.com. 

Planet of the Apps delves into the world of apps and the developers who create them.  The series is executive produced by Ben Silverman, Howard T. Owens, will.i.am, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba.  Craig Armstrong, Rick Ringbakk and Charles Wachter will serve as showrunners and executive producers.

About Propagate 
Since launching just over a year ago, Propagate has grown into a formidable business with several series in production and a number of high-profile projects in development with deals across broadcast, cable and streaming platforms.  Beyond developing, producing and distributing scripted and unscripted content, Propagate's plans call for the creation and global distribution of formats.  The company aims to roll out ambitious new content distribution models while building a global production platform that focuses on new markets. 

Propagate's unscripted development slate includes "Lore," based on the hit podcast and co-produced with Gale Anne Hurd's Valhalla Entertainment; "Unprotected" for Oxygen; "Evil Genius" for HISTORY; "My So-Called Simple Life" (working title) for FYI; a docu-series for Vivica A. Fox; and "Animal ER" for National Geographic Wild.

About Lightspeed
Lightspeed Venture Partners is an early stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating disruptive innovations and trends in the Enterprise and Consumer sectors. Over the past two decades, the Lightspeed team has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 300 companies globally, including Snapchat, The Honest Company, Nest, Giphy, GrubHub, Stitch Fix, and TaskRabbit. The Firm currently manages over $4 billion of committed capital and invests in the U.S. and internationally, with investment professionals and advisors in Silicon Valley, Israel, India and China. www.lsvp.com

SOURCE Propagate