Dude Perfect, the popular YouTube channel known for its clever schemes and family comedies, has secured significant investment to fuel its expansion into a global media brand. Highmount Capital, a personal investment firm, has committed a nine-figure sum — estimated at between $100 million and $300 million — to Dude Perfect’s ambitious plans.
With over 60 million subscribers and 17 billion perspectives on YouTube, Dude Perfect is already an online celebrity. However, now their eyes turn to a broader entertainment landscape.
The move marks a fundamental shift in the entertainment industry, highlighting the growing strength of YouTube’s creators and investor willingness towards them. Here’s my take on the deal as the co-founder and co-CEO of a company making an investment in the world’s most important site. sensible creators.
This significant investment is a turning point for Dude Perfect and for the author’s economy as a whole. Here’s why:
This investment is Dude Perfect’s first raise. Its earnings are estimated to be more than $50 million this year, according to the company, up from $25 million in 2022 and $20 million in 2021, as reported in the past via the Wall Street Journal.
With this new influx of capital, Dude Perfect has plans to:
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Coby Cotton, one of the co-founders of Dude Perfect, said, “We’ve had a lot of dreams and big visions that we haven’t been able to realize yet with the extension of our team. or the amount of capital we had so far, so it’s anything we’ve been looking for over the past year, and we were excited when Highmount came along.
The deal is part of a broader trend of investing in skills developed on YouTube to bring its large online audience to more established platforms and generate other revenue streams.
Blackstone-backed Candle Media acquired CoComelon’s parent company, Moonbug Entertainment, for roughly $3 billion in 2021. And my own company, Electrify Video Partners, secured a fund of up to $85 million to invest in leading channels like the world-renowned science channel. Veritasio.
After speaking with many of the world’s biggest YouTube creators over the past three years, many of them have the ambition and potential to become global media brands. However, few have the investment and experience to do so. I’m sure the Dude Perfect deal will be another strong signal to creators that an invested spouse with investment and experience can allow them to take their business to the next level. “