Los Angeles-based food and travel video startup Tastemade has raised a $40 million Series D round of funding. Tastemade co-founder Larry Fitzgibbon told Variety that the company wants to use the many to build out its technical infrastructure, and bring original content into additional markets.
Tastemade started out as a food-focused multi-channel network on YouTube, but has since evolved to produce original food and travel programming for a number of different platform, including its own mobile apps as well as its Apple TV app, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and elsewhere. “We have always thought of it as a bit of a pyramid,” said Fitzgibbon. Tastemade now has more than 100 million viewer watching more than one billion originally produced videos every month across these platforms as well as its own YouTube channels, he added.
SEE MORE: Cooking Channel Picks Up Tastemade ‘Grill Iron’ Web Series for TV
Popular on Variety
The company wants to double down on this multi-platform approach by building out technology that helps to target each of them. ‘We might do different cuts for Twitter or Instagram or Facebook,” Fitzgibbon said. To that effect, Tastemade also wants to grow its team to build out its platform.
And finally, Tastemade is looking to expand into additional international markets. Tastemade’s videos are already being watched around the world, but outside of the U.S., the company has really only targeted Brazil with localized original content, including cooking shows in Portuguese that are served up to Brazilians via its Apple TV app.
Going local has paid off in Brazil: The company now generates hundreds of millions of monthly video views in the country alone. That’s why in 2016, Tastemade wants to target other countries with local original content as well. “It’s a global opportunity,” said Fitzgibbon.
Tastemade’s latest round of funding comes from Goldman Sachs, as well as existing investors Redpoint Ventures, Raine Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Liberty Media, Scripps Networks Interactive, and Tohokushinsha Film Corporation. Including the latest cash infusion, Tastemade has raised around $80 million so far. The company employs around 50 people.
