NEW YORK -- Hearst Ventures, a unit of Hearst Corp., has made a minority investment in Science Inc., a technology operating company specializing in the creation and rapid scaling of digital businesses.
Science creates, scales and acquires digital businesses by bringing together the best ideas, talent, resources and financing through a centralized platform. Science, which has already started 13 companies, focuses on developing new businesses, providing emerging startups with operational strategy and capital, and transforming later-stage Internet ventures with new talent and innovations. As part of the investment, George Kliavkoff, executive vice president and deputy group head of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, will join the Science board of directors.
Science was founded by startup professionals in November 2011 with Series A funding from several marquee venture investors, including Eric Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures, Rustic Canyon Partners, and White Star Capital. Science’s CEO, Michael Jones, is a long-time digital entrepreneur and executive who most recently served as the CEO of Myspace and successfully sold that business for News Corp. Prior to Myspace, he had started and sold Userplane to AOL in 2006.
