NFL Hall of Famer Joe Montana is giving a $250,000 boost to messaging app and chatbot platform Blend, it was announced Wednesday. Montana’s investment expands his technology and social portfolio, which also includes investments in social company Pinterest and file storage service Dropbox.
His investment in Blend will directly support the development of “Genies” or the app’s equivalent of customized messenger chatbots.
This week, Blend is releasing 32 NFL Genies — one for each team — in order to provide fans real-time content, such as game updates, injury news and viral Tweets.
Through Blend’s proprietary technology, Genies can pinpoint viral content online and across social media even before it goes viral, leveraging third-party APIs to pull in the various pieces of information from sports teams, leagues, news sources and other platforms.