Cameo, the startup that offers celebrity shoutouts to fans in exchange for money, has raised $100 million in Series C funding, the Chicago-based company announced on Tuesday, pushing its valuation north of $1 billion.
The latest round of funding brings Cameo to $165 million in total funding since launching in 2017. The $100 million raised was led by Bay Area investment firm e.ventures and included other investors like Amazon’s Alexa Fund, GV (formerly Google Ventures), and UTA Ventures. Skateboard legend Tony Hawk also participated in the Series C round, as well as Cameo’s existing investors: The Chernin Group, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed, Origin Ventures and Spark Capital.
Cameo offers fans personalized videos from a large and eclectic mix of celebrities, from actress Lindsay Lohan to basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to reality TV star Lisa Vanderpump. Fans can pay as little as $5 — and up to thousands of dollars — for shoutout clips from their favorite stars; if you wanted to get your best friend a birthday video tribute from comedian Carrot Top, for example, it would cost $150.
“My D-list celebrity might be your favorite person in the world,” Steven Galanis, CEO and co-founder of Cameo, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Cameo has facilitated more than 2 million shoutout videos since launching, the Chicago Tribune reported on Tuesday, with about 80% of its bookings being gifts (like for birthdays and Bar Mitzvahs and other celebrations) for other people. Stars like Brian Baumgarner, better known as Kevin Malone from “The Office,” can make up to $1 million annual by making Cameo clips, according to the WSJ, and the company generated $100 million in revenue last year, up more than 300% from the year prior.
For more information on Cameo, you can read TheWrap’s full story on the company from July 2020 by clicking here.
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