Former Top Gear Hosts Create Digital Platform for Motoring Content

LONDON: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May have set up DriveTribe, a digital platform meant to serve as a community for motoring fans around the world.

DriveTribe will be structured into different “tribes” (each with their own unique characteristics and personality) hosted by stars, bloggers, writers and videographers, who will generate and curate their own content for fans. Users sign up to the tribes that reflect their personal motoring interests and can also create their own. The company’s Series A is funded directly by Clarkson, Hammond and May, plus longtime collaborator Andy Wilman. The site is set for a fall launch.

DriveTribe’s leadership team includes CEO Ernesto Schmitt, previously founder and CEO of Beamly, and CTO Jonathan Morris, previously CTO of Financial Times online and Thompson Reuters.

Clarkson said: “I didn’t understand DriveTribe until Richard Hammond said it was like YouPorn, only with cars.”

Hammond added: “Gamers have got Twitch, travelers have got TripAdvisor and fashion fans have got, oh, something or other too. But people who are into cars have got nowhere. There’s no grand-scale online motoring community where people can meet and share video, comments, information and opinion. DriveTribe will change that. And then some.”

May said: “This is pure digital inclusivity. Some of the world’s most endangered tribes—Volvo enthusiasts, for example—will now have a voice as loud as everyone else’s.”

Schmitt commented: “The investment potential is clear and we’re really excited by the plans to grow the business around the world-leading team we’ve assembled. Automotive and adventure-lifestyle are huge growth areas for content, and are presently woefully underserved digitally. Automotive is also the biggest advertising category in the world—with $45 billion spend projected for 2016—and we expect our content will monetize well through native advertising and social commerce.”