Turner has led a $45 million round of funding for Refinery29, a digital media company focused on women.
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Scripps Networks Interactive, which has previously invested in Refinery29, is also providing some of the funding for this round of financing.
The deal values Refinery29 at $500 million, according to multiple reports.
The two of them will work together to create content that will run on Refinery29’s digital platforms, as well stuff that could run on Turner’s TV channels.
Turner President David Levy says he wanted to work with Refinery29 because his portfolio didn’t have much for young women.
Turner’s Christina Miller, president and GM of Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and Boomerang, will join the board at Refinery29. “We’re excited to enter into this agreement and look forward to working with the talented and creative team at Refinery29 to develop and expand opportunities around our commercial content partnership and other initiatives that will engage audiences and appeal to advertisers”.
The company said it will use the infusion of cash to expand production across a range of new formats and channels, accelerate global growth and drive development of products and services for advertising and platform partners “looking to inspire and impact women”. Since then, the publisher’s audience has grown to 27 million unique visitors and 225 million users across all platforms.
Earlier this year, Turner made an investment in digital content provider Mashable. “We are thrilled to bring Turner on board as a key strategic partner: Turner’s portfolio consists of numerous world’s strongest media properties and it is a true leader in global content creation”.
Refinery will also use the funding to expand on its worldwide operations (it’s already expanded to Germany, the United Kingdom and France), the company stated.
Past year it placed an emphasis on video production with the launch of R29 Originals that includes a number of short-form digital projects.
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To date, Refinery29 has raised $125.4 million, with other investors including Stripes Group, Floodgate, Lead Edge Capital, First Round Capital, Lerer Ventures and Hearst Corporation.
