Brent Montgomery and Jimmy Kimmel‘s media company Wheelhouse has secured its first outside round of funding, landing a minority investment from former Time Warner chief Jeff Bewkes‘ investment firm Alignment Growth.
As part of the transaction, Bewkes — who founded Alignment with Alex Iosilevich andKevin Tsujihara — will be joining Wheelhouse’s board of directors.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Wheelhouse says the size of the investment from Alignment “will enable Wheelhouse to build an infrastructure that attracts industry-leading talent and accelerates growth via strategic acquisitions.”
Founded in 2018 by Kimmel and Montgomery, who was then coming off his sale of Leftfield Entertainment to ITV in 2014, Wheelhouse assets currently include Spoke Studios, Campfire, Butternut, Wheelhouse UK and DNA. Additionally, Wheelhouse has production partnerships with Kimmel’s Kimmelot and celebrity chef David Chang’s Majordomo Media.
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Wheelhouse-produced series include Netflix’s “King of Collectibles” from executive producer Peyton Manning, “Buying Beverly Hills” and “Players,” Hulu’s “Secret Chef” with Chang, “WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn,” and the upcoming “Got to Get Out”; Max’s “Smartless: On the Road”; and Roku’s “Celebrity Family Cookoff” with Sofia Vergara, among others.
In 2023, Wheelhouse sold 20 series that are in various stages of production for Netflix, Hulu, Roku, Paramount+, HGTV, Food Network and OWN.
The Wheelhouse-Alignment Growth deal was led by Alignment Growth partner Tsujihara, Wheelhouse president and general counsel Rob Lia, and chief strategy officer Ed Simpson, who heads up M&A.
“We are building Wheelhouse as a collective of global creatives who not only shine on their own, but truly want to partner with one another across labels and divisions so we’re thrilled that Alignment’s investment will allow us to supersize our efforts engaging talent in front of and behind the camera,” Montgomery said.
Bewkes added: “We are excited to partner with and support Brent, a seasoned operator and a magnet for the best talent in non-scripted. His success in the space is unparalleled, and his team is well-positioned to build Wheelhouse into one of the preeminent names across the industry.”
