Rethinking media: Burda invests in Waitwhat
BurdaPrincipal Investments, together with Cue Ball Capital, is leading the current Series A investment round for innovation and media start-up Waitwhat. Former TED managers June Cohen and Deron Triff founded the company in New York in 2017 with the goal of rethinking the development and growth of media services. They can build on their experience as leaders of TED talks, which they have built into a globally successful media brand with over 1 billion viewers and listeners.
Waitwhat launched the podcast “Masters of Scale” in May 2017. With guests such as Mark Zuckerberg, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Daniel Ek (Spotify), Howard Schultz (Starbucks) and Phil Knight (Nike) and over 15 million downloads, “Masters of Scale” has quickly become one of the most renowned business media formats worldwide.
Reid Hoffmann and Joi Ito are among the other investors in the first round of financing, which totals USD 4 million. The founders will invest the capital raised here in the development of further innovative media products that cross format boundaries. The podcast “Should This Exist?”, which deals with the effects of technology on people, is already being launched today.