Group Nine bundles four digital media brands—Thrillist (lifestyle), NowThis (video news), The Dodo (animals) and Discovery’s Seeker—into a single multi-brand holding while letting each operate independently. The combined organization aims to leverage shared data, insights and advertiser relationships to scale and stay ahead of consolidation in digital content. Ben Lerer will serve as CEO of the combined company, and several of the merging brands have Lerer family ties. Advertisers will be offered campaigns that run across all four properties. Group Nine’s brands collectively deliver roughly 3.5 billion video views per month and more than 12 billion monthly social impressions. Discovery will be a minority investor and Axel Springer will be the second-largest shareholder, and The Dodo’s founder Izzie Lerer will continue to lead that brand.

Total raised

$100M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Oct 2016