Startups

Wikia, Parent Company Of Fandom, Raises $106 Million In New Equity Funding

In the world of social media and community participation, wikis are a seemingly ideal way to build a knowledge base and share information. But wikis don’t start and end with Wikipedia or weird corporate intranets. With Wikia and its Fandom platform, people from around the web are able to geek out with other fans about their favorite pop culture franchises.

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According to an SEC filing posted today, it appears as though those fans will be able to contribute to Wikia for a long time to come. The startup has closed a fresh round to the tune of $106.44 million in equity funding.

Jeremy Levine of Bessemer Venture Partners, Eric Liaw of IVP, Amazon’s Jeffrey Blackburn, and Gil Pechina of Ridge Ventures – who also served as Wikia’s CEO from 2006-2011 – and other non-executive directors are not listed as board members at Wikia in this most recent filing. They were listed in the SEC filing for Wikia’s Series D round.

Prior to this round, the company has raised $39 million in venture funding. Its most recent equity funding round, a $15 million Series D round, was closed in August 2014. SEC filings also suggest that the firm closed $6 million in a debt deal in October 2016.

Wikia was founded in 2004 by Jimmy Wales (who is best known as the founder of Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation) and Angela Starling, who left Wikia in 2012 to found education startup Chalkdrop. In 2016, Wikia launched its Fandom platform, which lets fans of video games, movies, television shows, and other pop culture to build wikis and share content about the things they love.

Aspects of the deal disclosed today were announced back in late February. A press release from the time said that the round was led by veteran media executive Jon Miller, who would join the company as co-chairperson alongside Jimmy Wales. TPG Capital was also an investor in the round, and a partner from the firm, Peter McGoohan, is listed on the SEC filing as a new addition to the board. In the February announcement, no terms of the transaction were disclosed, and the deal had not yet closed.

Wikia has not yet responded to requests for comment.

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