Participated · Series D · Dec 2015

Tastemade is a global entertainment company and studio that builds a community around food, producing digital video and lifestyle content, experiences, and authentic products. Founded in 2012 and based in Los Angeles, it operates studios in Los Angeles, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, London and Tokyo. The network reports an audience of over 200 million monthly users across more than 200 countries. The company raised $35m in a Series E round, bringing total funding to $115m to date. Tastemade intends to use the new funds to continue expanding its reach. Leadership includes founder and CEO Larry Fitzgibbon. Tastemade produces food and lifestyle video content distributed across platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and Apple TV. The company says it reaches 100 million monthly active viewers on its Tastemadenow programming and has amassed over 1 billion views across all platforms. Tastemade focuses on mobile video and aims to be the global food and travel network for digital platforms targeting millennial audiences. Its content has been sponsored by brands including American Express and Anheuser Busch. Founded in 2012 and based in Los Angeles, Tastemade is building a media business for the next generation of video consumers. The company recently completed a new financing round that affects its current capital position. Tastemade produces and curates food-centric video content, operating a Los Angeles studio and distributing primarily through YouTube. It reaches more than 18 million unique viewers per month. The company's slate includes in-house series (for example, the James Beard Award–winning 'Thirsty For...') and programming from a creator network, with most monetization coming from YouTube ads. Tastemade is expanding products with a released iPhone app and an Android app due later this month (launching first on Samsung phones) to grow creator participation. It is pursuing new revenue streams including branded content production for advertisers and testing direct payments from viewers for cooking classes and long-form content. The company plans to use growth capital to ramp up hiring and build its team. Tastemade operates a multichannel network best known for food-focused video content distributed primarily on YouTube. The company runs more than 100 channel partners and attracts over 12 million unique visitors from 200+ countries, with episodes contributed from more than 100 cities and users in 17 countries. Its newly launched iOS app guides creators through producing roughly one-minute "episodes" of restaurant reviews or recipes, with themes, music, filters, b-roll prompts, and social export. Tastemade aims to diversify distribution beyond YouTube onto platforms and devices such as AOL, Yahoo, Roku, and mobile, and to broaden how creators make content across its products. The founding team includes former Demand Media staff and is using product and platform expansion to surface new creator talent who may not already be on YouTube. Financially, the company announced an additional $10 million in funding to support these efforts and continued network growth.