Alloy Digital, which operates the most subscribed channel on YouTube, secured a $30 million Series A investment from ABS Capital Partners, the company announced. The new money arrives after two years in which Alloy has acquired successful online video companies, including Smosh, Generate, B5 Media, Clevver Media and The Escapist.
Of all those acquisitions, Smosh stands out because the company operates the most subscribed channel on YouTube. The channel now has more than 8 million subscribers, giving Alloy a network of channels with more than 12 million subscribers, reports The Wrap.
Anthony Padlla founded Smosh as its own website, and he and Ian Hecox have cultivated a base for Smosh outside of Google’s video giant. Many of YouTube’s most successful creators, such as Freddie Wong and Annoying Orange, have done the same — whether through proprietary websites, merchandising or television.
“Our strategy is similar to how traditional media companies broadly approach content and intellectual property,” Alloy CEO Matt Diamond told TheWrap. “We have a hit show and the monetization and marketing engine quickly gets around that with merchandise, international syndication and domestic syndication.”
Another key to YouTube is cross-promoting your own channels, and Smosh sister channel “Smosh Games” now boasts 1.6 million subscribers while “Shupt Up! Cartoons” has more than 800,000.
Diamond said the money would enable the company to improve the technological side of its produces and add “complementary, relevant properties and talent” appealing to its core demographic of consumers between the ages of 12-34. That could include more acquisitions to bolster its existing properties.
“What we want to do is continue to invest in intellectual property,” Diamond told TheWrap. “The consumer has continued to embrace and focus their attention on multiple mediums, particularly digital. Traditional media has not focused on the younger demo anymore and that opens the door for a company like us to invest in and deliver content directly to that demo.”
