Scott is the founder of Influencer Capital and CELEB. He is a thought leader on the creator economy and celebrity business space. Influencer Capital is an organization that structures equity deals between startups and creators/celebrities.
Guest Author: Scott Van den Berg
Could you imagine a could years ago that a YouTube group was able to score a $100M investment? Well, that’s what Dude Perfect just did.
Founded in 2009 by five friends, Dude Perfect has become one of the most popular YouTube channels, best known for their elaborate trick-shot videos on YouTube and other video platforms.
They just announced that they have secured a nine-figure investment from Highmount Capital in a play to build out their business in new areas and to expand their core programming.
“We’ve had a lot of dreams and big visions that we haven’t yet been able to tackle with the size team that we have, or the amount of capital that we’ve had so far, and so this was something that we’ve been looking into for the past year, and we were really excited when Highmount came along,” says Coby Cotton, one of Dude Perfect’s co-founders.
In addition to expanding the group’s content output, Cotton says that Dude Perfect wants to create more live experiences, as well as explore more consumer product opportunities. “We really want to expand what we can create for families to actually use in their own homes, and we feel like the possibilities there are endless.”
“A nine-figure investment is significant, but I think it’s because there’s such huge potential for what the Dudes are doing,” says Jason Illian, co-founder and general partner at Highmount Capital. “I mean, you’re talking about the creator economy being at $250 billion and doubling in the next couple of years.
They also plan to bring in new talent, something that they have already quietly started doing through their free Dude Perfect app and streaming service, which lets users submit their own trick shots to be featured.
Dude Perfect won’t definitely be the last creators to receive investments to scale their brand across different verticles. The creator economy is just getting started.
Congrats to everyone on the Dude Perfect team!
