Letterboxd Sells Majority Stake to Canadian Venture Firm Tiny
Letterboxd, the social media network for film buffs, said Friday it has sold a majority stake to Canadian venture capital and holding company Tiny.
“We have accepted an offer for Tiny to acquire a 60 percent stake in Letterboxd, securing the platform’s future as an independently run company and part of the Tiny stable,” Co-funder Mathew Buchanan said in a lengthy post on the site. Terms were not disclosed.
Tiny, founded in 2007 with the goal of buying strong companies an allowing them to operate without interference, owns media company Girlboss, software maker HappyFunCorp, design networking site Dribble and over a dozen other tech-driven companies.
“Aside from the ownership change, and in line with Tiny’s core operating values, very little else will change,” Buchanan said of Letterboxed, a site where users post lists and reviews of movies they’ve seen that’s been likened to a “GoodReads for movies.”
Buchanan said that he and co-founder von Randow “are still leading the team, which remains the same, but now has the additional support of a company with vast experience in helping founders through periods of growth, which Letterboxd continues to enjoy. It means we can bring you more of the features you love and deserve, at a sustainable pace.”
New Zealand-based Letterboxd recently topped 10 million members across more than 200 countries, building on a growth spurt amid the Covid-19 pandemic. It had just 1.8 million in 2020 and jumped to 4.1 million by 2021.
It also launched editorial content it calls “Journal,” a podcast, “The Letterboxd Show,” and started covering film festivals, red-carpets and other industry events. It also partnered with The Academy to create original content around the Oscars, and with Netflix to create a dedicated page for recommendations lists, stories and videos.
Tiny pointed to that growth as one of the things that made the acquisition appealing. “Letterboxd has captured the attention of younger audiences, particularly those aged 18 to 24, who are looking for more meaningful ways to connect online around shared interests,” it said.
“We’ve been huge fans and users of Letterboxd for a long time and could not be more excited to join forces with Matthew, Karl, and the rest of the team for the long-term,” said Tiny Co-founder Andrew Wilkinson in a statement. “Our aim is to make Letterboxd the ultimate destination for anyone looking to discover or discuss movies online. If you’re running out of things to watch, it’s because you haven’t used Letterboxd yet—and we believe that the potential for superior discovery is a large opportunity.”
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