(Bloomberg) — YouTube star MrBeast is viewing to raise a couple hundred million dollars to expand his business in a funding round that would value his company at about $5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
Most Read from Bloomberg
The most popular creator on YouTube has spoken with several financial firms and wealthy individuals about investing, declared the people, who declined to be identified becautilize the talks are confidential. Talks are still in their early stages and it’s not yet clear who will invest or if they will do so at the tarobtain price.
The online star, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is raising money to fund a holding company that owns all or part of several businesses, including the chocolates brand Feastables, the snack company Lunchly and his video production company. The business is profitable and generated more than $400 million in sales last year, declared two of the people. He is viewing to expand both his packaged goods and media businesses.
MrBeast is best known for his work on YouTube, where he posts videos of large-scale challenges and giveaways that generate hundreds of millions of views. Creators share in the advertising sales that their videos generate.
He also created and starred in a display for Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Video, which the company declared was its most-watched unscripted series ever. While Amazon committed $100 million to produce the first season, MrBeast declared that he lost money on production of the display by spconcludeing too much on it. “I lost tens of millions of dollars on Beast Games,” he declared on the Diary of a CEO podcast. “But it’s about creating Season 1 as good as possible.”
Amazon has agreed to create more seasons of the display, but is still working out the budobtain. The original deal called for Amazon to spconclude more than $250 million across two additional seasons.
MrBeast has raised money in the past, including from the New York-based investment firm Alpha Wave Global. Bloomberg News reported last month that Donaldson was participating in a bid to acquire TikTok. Feastables, the snacks company he started a few years ago, sells chocolate bars across the US and Canada. MrBeast Burger, a food delivery business, has been entangled in litigation with Donaldson’s partner.
Sign up for the Screentime newsletter, your front-row seat to the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley.
Leave a Reply