Digital Media Company Group Nine Raises $585 Million
According to an SEC filing, a new holding company, Group Nine, raised $585 million. The holding company, founded in October, 2016, ties together several existing online media properties, including Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo, and Seeker.
Group Nine says its media brands collectively deliver 3.5 billion video views each month and attract more than 12 billion monthly social impressions. Ben Lerer, the founder of Thrillist, will be the new company’s CEO.
As reported by Business Insider, the $585 million includes a $100 million investment from Discovery Communications. (Seeker, Discovery’s digital network, is one of the Group Nine brands.) The SEC filing also mentions that the deal includes $14 million to be “used for payments to any of the persons required to be named as executive officers, directors or promoters.”
As Business Insider reported, the deal reflects the increasing stakes in the maturing online media market. It puts Group Nine in a class of well-capitalized online-native publishers that includes The Huffington Post, Refinery29, Vice, BuzzFeed, and Vox. All of those companies have either secured large investments from traditional media giants or have been absorbed by them.
