WndrCo Raises $1B for 'NewTV'

LOS ANGELES-- WndrCo announced today that it had closed an initial funding round for “NewTV” [working title], raising $1 billion. Led by Meg Whitman and Jeffrey Katzenberg, NewTV brings together the best of Silicon Valley and Hollywood to create the first entertainment platform built for easy, on-the-go mobile viewing, allowing today’s leading studios and creative talent to tell original stories in an entirely new way.

“More so than ever, people want easy access to the highest quality entertainment that fits perfectly into their busy, on-the-go lifestyles,” said Meg Whitman, CEO of NewTV. “With NewTV, we’ll give consumers a user-friendly platform, built for mobile, that delivers the best stories, created by the world’s top talent, allowing users to make the most of every moment of their day.”

The initial raise included investments by all of the major Hollywood studios, a number of independent studios, major technology companies, and strategic partners.

“It is exciting to see Hollywood embracing this new technology distribution platform built for the way we watch today,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, Managing Partner of WndrCo and Chairman and Founder of NewTV. “NewTV will access the best talent and intellectual property for this next era in entertainment. We are already seeing tremendous interest from Hollywood’s top talent.”

The Hollywood studio investors include 21st Century Fox, Disney, Entertainment One, ITV, Lionsgate, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Viacom, and Warner Media. The technology company investors include Alibaba. The strategic partner investors include The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Liberty Global, and Madrone Capital, who led the round.