Woven Digital Raises $18 Million In Series A Financing Led By Institutional Venture Partners

New Funding Further Positions Woven to Become Dominant Digital Media Company Connecting Millennials to Pop Culture Content

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Woven Digital

Dec 11, 2014, 11:00 ET

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Woven Digital, a publisher of fast-growing pop culture news and entertainment sites which include UPROXX and BroBible, today announced that it has raised $18 million in Series A financing led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). Also participating are Advancit Capital, The San Francisco 49ers, United Talent Agency, senior partners from leading entertainment law firm Ziffren Brittenhanm LLP, MySpace and SGN co-founder Chris DeWolfe, Buddy Media co-founder Mike Lazerow, and former NBA players Baron Davis and Jermaine O'Neal. IVP Principal Somesh Dash will join Woven's board of directors.

"IVP is incredibly well regarded for their support of entrepreneurs and their track record of working with innovative technology and media companies," said Scott Grimes, co-founder and CEO of Woven. "We couldn't be more excited to partner with IVP and Somesh in particular. He brings a wealth of experience, strategic perspective, and relationships to our company."

Woven Digital reaches nearly 5 million visitors daily and 90 million users monthly with nearly 60% of its viewership coming via mobile devices. Woven's leading online brands have become home to millennials thirsty for pop culture news, by focusing on their core passions and interests. UPROXX is the largest entertainment news site geared toward millennials, and BroBible is the largest young male college lifestyle site.

"Woven's expertise in developing and selling high-quality content, along with their innovative content management technology, positions the company to differentiate itself in the digital publishing arena," said Dash. "We're big fans of the team and are thrilled to partner with Scott, Colin and the rest of the team to help accelerate Woven's next phase of growth."

The capital will be used to bolster Woven's ad sales team, increase editorial content production, accelerate development of its technology, and expand Woven Studios, the company's original video production arm.

"We've worked hard to assemble the pieces needed to fulfill our vision of becoming a dominant pop culture media and content company. This financing will be the catalyst that enables us to more quickly execute," said Colin Digiaro, President of Woven.

This financing comes at a time of strong growth for Woven. Recent milestones include:

Triple-digit revenue growth year-over-year for the last three years.
Acquisition of UPROXX, which reaches more than 26 million users per month.
Bolstering the Woven executive team with the addition of Colin Digiaro as President, Jarret Myer as GM of Publishing, Matthew Polesetsky as General Counsel and Ben Blank as Chief Creative Officer.
Development of Thred, Woven's technology platform to streamline news creation across the company's leading news and entertainment sites.
Expansion of Woven Studios, which develops branded programming and original video content for top brands including Boost Mobile, EA, Miller/Coors, Sony Pictures, FX, Comedy Central, AT&T, Anheuser Busch, Motorola, Bacardi, among many others.

IVP investments in leading Consumer Technology hypergrowth companies have included Dropbox, The Honest Company, Netflix, Snapchat, Soundcloud, Supercell and Twitter.

About Woven

Woven Digital is a millennial focused digital media company, producing and distributing relevant pop culture content to nearly 5 million users per day. As home to some of the most influential digital brands for young Americans, Woven reaches 90 million users per month providing them with shareable breaking news, original reporting, entertainment, and video. UPROXX is one of the largest millennial focused news and entertainment sites on the web, while BroBible is the largest male focused college lifestyle destination. Founded in 2010 by Scott Grimes and Michael Laur, Woven is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices and production facilities in New York and Chicago. For more information about Woven, visit www.Woven.com. For media inquiries, contact [email protected]

About Institutional Venture Partners (IVP)

With $4 billion of committed capital, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is one of the premier later-stage venture capital and growth equity firms in the United States. Founded in 1980, IVP has invested in over 300 companies, 100 of which have gone public. IVP is one of the top-performing firms in the industry and has a 33-year IRR of 43.2%. IVP specializes in venture growth investments, industry rollups, founder liquidity transactions, and select public market investments. Since its inception, IVP investments include such notable companies as AppDynamics, ArcSight (HPQ), Buddy Media (CRM), ComScore (SCOR), Dropbox, Dropcam (Nest), Fleetmatics (FLTX), HomeAway (AWAY), Juniper Networks (JNPR), Kayak (PCLN), LegalZoom, LifeLock (LOCK), Marketo (MKTO), MySQL (ORCL), Netflix (NFLX), ngmoco (DeNA), OnDeck, Polycom (PLCM), Pure Storage, RetailMeNot (SALE), Seagate (STX), Shazam, Snapchat, Supercell, Synchronoss (SNCR), The Honest Company, Twitter (TWTR), and Zynga (ZNGA). For more information, visit http://ivp.com or follow IVP on Twitter: @ivp.

Contact:
Tracy Akselrud
310.709.1560
[email protected]

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SOURCE Woven Digital