Less than six months after the Dolan family sold its Cablevision Systems to Altice USA for $17.8 billion, two members of the cable dynasty have formed an investment fund with the aim of providing capital to data, analytics and technology-based media businesses.
Dolan Family Ventures is headed up by former Cablevision chief operating officer Kristin Dolan and her husband, former Cablevision CEO James Dolan. Kristin, who has a deep background in the technology industry — she had served in several tech roles during her tenure at Cablevision — is managing partner and founder of DFV. James Dolan will serve as an investor and strategic adviser to DFV.
In an interview, Kristin Dolan said that while tech startups can navigate the bits and bytes associated with the technical side of the business, translating that to the TV industry is more difficult.
“I’m constantly amazed by how new media and digital companies, for whatever reason, struggle to get TV,” she said. “Having worked on both sides of the table, to look at some of these investment opportunities and imagine what they can become relative to the businesses we’ve owned in the past and are still involved with, is pretty fun.”
DFV would seek out companies in various stages of development, ranging from start-ups to more established entities, she added. Dolan declined to reveal the average size of investment or the amount of capital available, but said DFV is casting a wide net. “Anything that we choose to pursue will be well-funded,” she said.
