Inamoto & Co announce Digital Garage as financial and strategic partner
The new studio by former AKQA global chief creative officer, Rei Inamoto, and New York managing director, Rem Reynolds, is beginning to take shape with the announcement that Digital Garage will be Inamoto & Co’s financial and strategic partner.
Rei Inamoto
The Tokyo- and San Francisco-headquartered tech investment firm’s backing will come as a huge boost for the newly created Inamoto & Co in light of Digital Garage’s previous investments which have included Twitter in 2008 as well as digital media studio Betaworks and LinkedIn.
The firm’s financial backing is not the only asset it will offer Inamoto’s new project, Digital Garage’s group chief executive, Joi Ito, is also director at famed tech innovation incubator, MIT Media Lab, which will provide a strategic partnership.
While no figures have been revealed from the investment Inamoto said that the new shop will operate independently and that he and Reynolds are majority owners.
Inamoto has been adamant in asserting that the new venture, which is currently securing an office in Brooklyn, is not an ad agency but a "business invention studio" that focused on design, data, technology and digital transformation.
The company has also announced key additions to its leadership in the form of Will Turnage, former Senior vice president of technology at R/GA, who will come on board as director of technology. Nathalie Torres, former director of analytics at the Engine Group has been appointed director of data.