NFL Hall of Famer and former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana announced a $250,000 investment in Blend today. The chat app and bot platform will use the funding to create additional chatbots, called Genies. The company plans to create 1,000 bots by the end of the year.
“I’m very excited about Blend’s push into the NFL; the potential for franchise engagement is exponential,” Montana said in a statement shared with VentureBeat.
The investment from Montana comes in the same week as Blend is launching Genies for each of the 32 teams in the NFL in a section of the mobile app titled “Locker Room Talk.”
Genies were first made available on Blend last fall and deliver trending news stories and social media content to chat groups. Blend currently has one million monthly active users and hosts more than 180 different Genies, like Donald Trump, Rihanna, and Aria, a PornHub chatbot. Last month, Blend opened its API for developers to create their own Genies.
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Blend was created in 2012 and has raised more than $10 million from investors like NEA, CAA Ventures, and Foundation Capital. The company has 30 employees and is based in San Francisco.
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