Digital Media Company Woven Raises $18 Million Series A Round
This is the company's first big round of funding, and it hopes to use the investment to grow.
Woven says it already attracts over 90 million monthly uniques across all their properties.
52% of Woven's traffic comes from their owned sites, while the remaining traffic comes from partner sites such as NiceKicks, theCHIVE, DatPiff, Cheezburger, Dime Magazine, and others.
"What's really changing is the way young people consume pop culture news," says Somesh Dash, a principal at IVP Ventures who will join the Woven's board of directors. "It's not just reporting the event, but how they tell the story. Uproxx and Brobible do this remarkably well."
He explained that Woven properties have grown so quickly because they all have a uniquely authentic, culturally relevant voice that speaks to millennials.
Before accepting this recent round of investment, Woven had only accepted $5.5 million dollars in seed capital. Despite this, they have been able to grow a massive audience and pull off two large acquisitions (Guyism and Brotips) with very little resources on a very tight budget.
"We're growth investors, but one thing we like in additional to growth is the path to profitability, and we were impressed with everything Woven has done from off their own balance sheet before taking equity capital," Dash said.
Woven plans to use the new funding to double its sales team, build out its tech platform, improve its video capabilities by launching three new original series, and beef up their editorial team.
Media ia suddenly a hot area of investment after long being shunned by venture investors. Andreessen Horowitz announced a $50 million investment in BuzzFeed this summer, and Vox Media, the company behind the Verge, SB Nation and Vox, raised another $46.5 million in a round led by General Atlantic in November.