New York, NY – December 25, 2013 – Madison Square Garden: ESPN courtside reporter Lisa Salters interviews Russell Westbrook (0) of the Oklahoma City Thunder prior to a regular season game
(Photo by Ben Solomon / ESPN Images)
Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook has invested in Blend Systems’ new app Genies, a group messenger that will soon provide users with the option to use animated chatbots that pull in curated content about news, sports, entertainment and brands from social media feeds.
The app enables users to create a cartoon Genie clone of themselves — sort of like a more sophisticated and interactive Bitmoji — which not only looks but also acts and thinks like the user in reaction to news stories. It features bots of celebrities and brands as well, from Donald Trump and Kanye West to ESPN and Fitbit, which users can input to get tailored news about those specific people and companies.
Blend, which expects the app to help aggregate news for younger demographics in a fun and consumable way, expects the app to launch in mid-July.
Russell Westbrook’s Genie clone
In a statement, Westbrook said he gets much of his news from social media and believes the Genies app is going to change the way people consume news on social platforms.
“I’m always on the lookout for things that can change my personal day-to-day life and with social and news being a big part of almost everyone’s life, I saw an opportunity to be a part of something that is intertwining the two,” the six-time NBA All-Star said.
The company, which has roughly 20 employees, raised more than $10 million in capital through the end of 2016 from several venture capitalists and Legendary Entertainment CEO Thomas Tull, who invested $2 million Blend Systems in October.
