Maker Studio Secures $36M in Time Warner-Led Funding Round

Time Warner Investment's chief will join Maker's board

Maker Studios secured $36 million in the initial closing of its latest round of financing, led by Time Warner Investments, the company announced Thursday.

The YouTube network best known for Nice Peter's "Epic Rap Battles of History," KassemG, "Bad Lip Reading," and SnoopDogg's WestFestTV raised money from Greycoft Partners, GRP Partners, Robert Downey Jr.'s Downey Ventures and Elisabeth Murdoch, among others.

The Series C financing will help grow the web-video heavyweight, which just built a new headquarters. This marks its third major round of investment.

Rachel Lam, the head of Time Warner Investments group, will join the board of directors.

“We’re extremely excited and grateful to have the support of Time Warner and our other investment partners who are some of the most respected names in media and entertainment, and are thrilled that we will be able to provide even more resources and opportunities to our valued network partners,” Danny Zappin, Maker's co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “We founded Maker because, as YouTube content creators ourselves, we recognized there was a need for a new type of studio and network that could support artists on any platform.”

Founded in 2009, Maker focuses on comedy, music, gaming, beauty and fashion, and programming for mothers. The studio completed a 40,000-square foot campus in Culver City this year, allowing the company's roster of film and television makers to record, edit and stage their productions in-house.

"In just a few short years, Maker has established itself as the go-to network on YouTube for top creative talent, and the combination of outstanding creative with formidable audience reach has translated into Maker's phenomenal growth as a company," Lam said in a statement. "Our investment in Maker gives us insight into next generation video content and the ever-evolving online video landscape, as well as access to new producers of content for Time Warner's existing television, film and cable network operations."

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