Jeffrey Katzenberg’s NewTV Raises $1 Billion

WndrCo, a holding company co-founded by Jeffrey Katzenberg, has secured $1 billion in an initial funding round for the mobile-first media platform NewTV from investors such as 21st Century Fox, Disney, Entertainment One, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal and Viacom.

Led by Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, NewTV (working name) aims to bring together the best of Silicon Valley and Hollywood to create an entertainment platform built for on-the-go mobile viewing. Other investors in the venture include the studios Sony Pictures Entertainment, ITV, Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Warner Media. The technology company investors include Alibaba. The strategic partner investors include The Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Liberty Global and Madrone Capital, which led the round.

“More so than ever, people want easy access to the highest quality entertainment that fits perfectly into their busy, on-the-go lifestyles,” said 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.”

“It is exciting to see Hollywood embracing this new technology distribution platform built for the way we watch today,” said 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.”