A24 Secures New Investment Round Led By Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital
Josh Kusher
A24 has closed an investment round led by Thrive Capital, the New York investment firm of Josh Kushner, who will join the indie distributor’s board of directors.
The company also received increased support from existing investors who participated in the previous round including Ken Fox’ private equity firm Stripes, and investment fund Neuberger Berman.
There was no dollar figure given in the announcement of the fund raise, the company’s second. In 2022, it secured a $225 million equity investment led by Stripes that valued A24 at $2.5 billion. Deadline hears the investment announced today reps an increase in valuation of 40% since then, valuing it at just over $3.5 billion.
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Nor did the company behind Civil War and Beef specify how it will use the funds. Deadline hears it will invest in and expand production and distribution and continue work on initiatives beyond the screen from music and publishing to consumer products and live theater. Its complementary businesses include production and management firm 2AM, makeup and skin care brand Half Magic, and NYC’s Cherry Lane Theatre.
Josh Kushner, brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, has backed Open AI, Instagram, Spotify and Stripe, to name a few and Thrive has about $16 billion in assets under management. He is married to supermodel Karlie Kloss. The couple are working to revive iconic Life magazine under a licensing agreement with Dotdash Meredith.
“At Thrive we aim to invest in category defining businesses across every industry. In A24, we see a company bringing extraordinary talent and creativity together with business model and technology innovation to reinvent entertainment for the modern age. We are honored to partner with them,” Thrive said.
A24 said it’s“thrilled to be working with Thrive Capital whose unique expertise will be invaluable in our growth. With Thrive, alongside our existing partners, we look forward to growing our support of groundbreaking storytellers and helping their voices reach audiences around the world.”
A24 received initial seed funding from Tod Boehly’s Eldridge Industries at its 2012 launch.
Since then, it’s built a premium library of over 150 films (Civil War, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Midsommar, Moonlight, Uncut Gems, the remastered rerelease of the Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense) and 50 television series (Euphoria, Beef, Ramy, The Sympathizer), garnering critical acclaim, commercial success, a haul of Oscars, Golden Globes and Emmys and a passionate fan base.
Upcoming from the studio — The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt; High and Low directed by Spike Lee starring Denzel Washington, We Live in Time starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield, Heretic starring Hugh Grant, Babygirl starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson; Eddington starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone.
Deadline hears that with this latest fundraise, external investors own about 12.5% of the company, with A24 founders, Daniel Katz, David Fenkel and John Hodges, and employees maintaining a significant majority.