Josh Richards Joins Social Media App Triller as Part of Executive Team Alongside A-listers Griffin Johnson and Noah Beck
Josh to Serve as an Officer on Triller's Executive Team, Griffin and Noah to Serve as Advisors
Jul 28, 2020, 09:00 ET
LOS ANGELES, July 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- As a growing number of companies and countries ban TikTok due to security concerns, social media A-listers and entrepreneurs Josh Richards, Griffin Johnson and Noah Beck have joined an impressive roster of top influencers and content creators jumping over to Triller, the leading AI-driven music video and entertainment platform in the U.S. and around the world. Richards, the co-founder of digital talent management firm TalentX Entertainment has become an investor in Triller and will be joining the company as Chief Strategy Officer. Johnson and Beck are also advisors and equity shareholders, joining a long list of celebrities – from Snoop Dogg to Lil Wayne – who have invested in the platform.
Last year, Triller raised $28 million in a funding round led by Proxima Media. Ryan Kavanaugh, Proxima's founder and owner, is a strategic partner in the Triller platform. In June, Triller hit 50 million monthly active users, surpassing TikTok's user count when it was sold to ByteDance for $1 billion in 2017. Following TikTok's ban in India, Triller saw a significant spike in growth as 120 million former TikTok users were left scrambling for a new way to create and connect.
In addition to its ever-expanding user reach, Triller has music licensing partnerships with several top studios, including Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Universal. These partnerships allow users to create content utilizing a wide-ranging catalog of music and share it across multiple social platforms without the need to navigate licensing fees. Triller was integral in helping Tyga go 6x Platinum with "Taste," and YG go 2x Platinum with "Big Bank," and is credited by Lil Nas X as the platform that helped launch "Old Town Road." The app is also used for music promotion by top artists such as Chance the Rapper, DaBaby, Halsey, and BTS.
In addition to heading up strategy at Triller, Richards will oversee the company's implementation of live streaming and the addition of monetization tools.
"As a the leader of the content creating influencer community and entrepreneur himself, Josh understands our culture and shares our value of putting artists first. Triller's recent exponential growth has skyrocketed our global user base and Josh is a tremendous value add. He will ensure the voice of creators and influencers are always included and that our product's roadmap consistently puts our users first. We are beyond excited to welcome him into our Triller family," said Triller CEO, Mike Lu.
"After seeing the US and other countries' governments' concerns over TikTok – and given my responsibility to protect and lead my followers and other influencers – I followed my instincts as an entrepreneur and made it my mission to find a solution. I am proud to announce that I am formally an investor in Triller and will serve as their Chief Strategy Officer," said Richards.
"Throughout my career as an influencer and entrepreneur, my goal has always been to protect my peers from the dangers of the industry and to be a mentor and friend," Richards continued. "This is why, along with some amazing cofounders, I started TalentX. As part of my role with Triller, I will help guide the user experience and talent tools and technology to be the absolute best in the industry, focusing on what is needed for creators to succeed on both the content and monetization front. Today's announcement is a major step towards achieving this goal and I couldn't be more excited to start this next chapter."
About Josh Richards
Josh Richards is an 18-year-old Gen-Z celebrity phenom, boasting over 25M followers across social media, and entrepreneur. Richards co-founded digital talent management firm TalentX, co-founded Ani Energy, an energy drink, alongside fellow creator Bryce Hall and entrepreneur Evan Burns, founder of Odyssey and The Finnish Long Drink, serves as Chief Strategy Officer of social media app Triller, and is a recording artist signed to Warner Records. In addition to Richards' intense entrepreneur and social media creator schedule, philanthropic initiatives have never taken a back seat. He spoke at the Consumer Electronics Show discussing what the youth could do to help combat climate change, participated in the All in Challenge, and created a merch line where all proceeds were donated to the NAACP.
About Triller
Triller is an AI-powered music video app that allows users to create professional-looking videos in a matter of seconds. Pick a song, select the portion of the song you want to use, snap a few takes and with the tap of a button you have a celebrity-quality music video starring you and your friends. Triller relies solely on organic growth and has more than 60 million downloads, with celebrities from Kevin Hart to Vanessa Hudgens regularly using the app to create their own music videos.
For more information, visit www.triller.co and follow @trillervids on Instagram.
About Proxima Media
Proxima Media was founded by legendary Hollywood producer Ryan Kavanaugh, who together with his executive team, have been responsible for producing more than 200 films, which have grossed over $25 billion at the box office. Proxima Media's films include Immortals, The Fast and the Furious, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Salt, Wanted, Limitless, The Fighter, Mirror Mirror, Safe Haven, Beyond the Lights, and The Social Network, the latter of which received eight Oscar nominations. Other films include Mamma Mia!, 3:10 to Yuma, Grown Ups, and Dear John. Proxima is owned and operated by Proxima Media founder, Ryan Kavanaugh.
They are credited with originating a number of first-of-their-kind deals that changed the film industry, including a deal for Marvel Studios, which led to the creation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that has amassed more than $17.5 billion at the box office worldwide. Mr. Kavanaugh followed-up that success with a first-of-its-kind television pay deal with Netflix and created what is today known as the SVOD window for Netflix, which boosted Netflix's market capitalization to $10 billion USD. He was also honored with a 'Hollywood Producer of the Year' award and was named by Variety as "Showman of the Year."
Mr. Kavanaugh's other notable credits include what is now called Independent Sports & Entertainment, an integrated sports, media, entertainment, and management company that represents 300 of the best athletes in the NBA, NFL, and MLB, and is the second-largest integrated management company in the U.S. with approximately $2.5 billion in player contracts. He also created the powerhouse television company, now called Critical Content, which produced hit shows such as MTV's Catfish, Limitless, and over 40 other television series.
Kavanaugh also was a co-founder of PreCash, later renamed Noventis Payments, a first-of-its-kind technology Fintech platform, which sold earlier this year for over $300 Million. and He was also an investor in numerous successful unicorns, including Juno (originally Zeta-Rx,founded by Jack Kavanaugh), the largest biotech IPO in 2014, which later sold for north of $10 Billion.
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