Lemonada Media Podcast Network Raises $8M in Series A Funding
The latest fundraising round was led by BDMI, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann.
Lemonada co-founders Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs. COURTESY OF KATHRYN MADRIAGA; ELIZABETH WEINBERG
Lemonada Media, the podcast network behind shows like Andy Slavitt’s In the Bubble and the Jay Ellis–produced Written Off, has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round.
The latest funding round was led by BDMI, a subsidiary of the German media company Bertelsmann, with participation from Madison Wells, Greycroft, Spring Point Partners LLC, Intuition Capital, Owl Capital Group and Blue Collective, Lemonada’s lead seed investor. Other individual investors include Wenda Millard, vice chair of MediaLink, and Stephanie Hannon, the chief product officer at Waze and formerly the chief technology officer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
As part of the Series A round, Gigi Pritzker, founder and CEO of Madison Wells, and Keith Titan, a partner at BDMI, will join the Lemonada board of directors. Jennifer Fonstad, the founder of Owl Capital and Hannon, will join Lemonada’s advisory council.
“Anyone working with Lemonada gets out of bed in the morning to help make the world a better place. This funding will allow our independent, diverse, women-led, audio-first network to not only grow our slate, but to expand our team, brand and organizational partnerships, and creator community,” said Jessica Cordova Kramer, the CEO of Lemonada, adding that the network’s goals at this time are to reach more diverse audiences both in and outside of the U.S.
“This is a thrilling moment for Lemonada, allowing our staff, hosts and partners to keep innovating, reach larger audiences with our podcasts, and find ways to bring our community together at live and virtual events,” added Stephanie Wittels Wachs, Lemonada’s chief creative officer.
Lemonada was founded in 2019 by Cordova Kramer, formerly an executive producer at Crooked Media, and Wittels Wachs, an author and theater director. The duo launched their first podcast under Lemonada, Last Day, about the opioid crisis in the U.S., after the two co-founders learned they had both lost their younger brothers to opioid overdoses.
Since then, Lemonada has grown its annual revenue from $1.5 million in 2020 to over $5 million in 2021 and reaches more than 2 million listeners per month with a slate of 20 original podcasts, a Lemonada spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. Last July, the podcast network also joined Apple Podcasts’ subscription feature with a paid tier, Lemonada Premium, for listeners at $4.99 a month.
Lemonada, which now has 43 full-time staff across the U.S., is represented by CAA’s Josh Lindgren.
