Lemonada Media, the podcast community that presents humanity unfiltered, introduced it has raised $8 million in Collection A (second spherical) funding led by BDMI, an entirely owned subsidiary of the worldwide media companies and schooling firm Bertelsmann.
Additionally included on this spherical are Madison Wells, Greycroft, Spring Level Companions LLC, Instinct Capital, and Owl Capital Group. New and present particular person buyers embody Wendy Millard, vice chair of MediaLink, and Stephanie Hannon, CTO for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign, in addition to Blue Collective, Lemonada’s lead seed investor and largest outdoors investor so far.
Co-founded by Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wachs, Lemonada’s mission is to current genuine first-person narratives that spotlight the various human expertise and make us all really feel much less alone. Lemonada is coming into its third yr of operation with a rising slate of 20 authentic podcasts, reaching thousands and thousands of listeners per thirty days.
In 2021, Lemonada tripled its income, added 10 new exhibits, designed and trademarked an audio actuality studio (BEING Studios) led by actuality star veteran Kasey Barrett, and co-created authentic exhibits like Written Off with Jay Ells’ Black Bar Mitzvah and Consider Her with publishing home Spiegel & Grau, which launched on the prime podcast charts. The community additionally has its eye on continued international enlargement, after notching No. 1 exhibits in Europe with In Grio con Fra (Italy) and As Me with Sinéad (Eire).
“Anybody working with Lemonada will get away from bed within the morning to assist make the world a greater place. This funding will permit our impartial, various, women-led, audio-first community to not solely develop our slate, however to broaden our workforce, model, and organizational partnerships, and creator neighborhood,” says Lemonada CEO Cordova Kramer. “Along with or KPIs round viewers and income, one purpose throughout this time is to maintain a eager eye on variety, with the intention of reaching new audiences within the U.S. and past.”
“It is a thrilling second for Lemonada, permitting our employees, hosts and companions to maintain innovating, attain bigger audiences with our podcasts, and discover methods to carry our neighborhood collectively at reside and digital occasions” says Chief Artistic Officer Wittles Wachs. “Extra podcasts, sure, but additionally increasing outreach and bringing extra various expertise and employees into the community, and extra partnerships with manufacturers who want to make life much less with us.”
Lemonada was based in 2019 after Jess (an early producer with Crooked Media) & Steph (an creator, voice actress and theater director) linked after studying that they had each misplaced their beloved little brothers to opioid overdoses. The corporate’s first podcast, Final Day, chronicles the opioid disaster in America by zooming in on the final day of Stefano Cordova Jr.’s life, and evolves to take a broader view of the complicated epidemic.
Whereas co-creating that collection, Wittles Wachs and Cordova Kramer noticed a broader alternative to make life suck much less, one podcast at a time, by constructing a community. The now-41 particular person full-time employees is concentrated in NYC, LA, Twin Cities and dealing flexibly throughout the nation.
