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Portfolio News

Forbes: Doing Things Media Raises $21.5 Million Series A

Volition Press
Volition

Originally posted on Forbes.com

What’s a meme worth? Likely more than you’d think.

Doing Things Media, an Atlanta-founded company that owns many of the most popular Instagram meme accounts like @ShitHeadSteve  and @DoggosDoingThings, has taken in a $21.5 million Series A. The round was led by Volition Capital, a Boston VC firm that has backed companies like Chewy.com, the pets e-retailer.

Doing Things Media is profitable and brought in more than $10 million in revenue last year from a mix of sponsored ads and e-commerce, mostly apparel and other items bearing the meme accounts’ brands. The five-year-old company hadn’t intended to take any outside capital but thought Volition’s experience backing Chewy.com would benefit a determination to grow its own e-commerce operation. “When they hit us up, we were like, ‘Yeah, okay, let’s hear them out,’” Hailey says. “Our goal is to keep growth that’s sustainable.”

Memes are everywhere online: silly, viral content commenting on pop culture often through nothing more than recycled joke images. But it’s been hard to gauge how well a company might monetize them. Or how valuable such a company would be. In 2020, Warner Music reportedly spent $85 million on IMGN Media, which owns things like the Instagram account @Daquan. Given what Warner paid for IMGN and the new influx of Series A cash, it’s reasonable to assume Doing Things received a valuation that neared $100 million in this latest funding round.

Doing Things weathered the pandemic downturn in marketing dollars by pitching advertisers like Bud Light, T-Mobile and Netflix on its young, loyal audience. It has approximately 20 meme accounts on Instagram, a collection of brands with over 40 million followers.

“Companies like Doing Things have already done the hardest part: They’ve created unique content, they’ve amassed massive audiences, and their audiences are very engaged,” says Larry Cheng, a founding partner at Volition. “We think there’s plenty of room to create new brands and expand to new categories and also to extend to different distribution channels.”

Check out the full article here. 

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