YouTube Network StyleHaul Closes $4.4 Million Funding Round

Speaking of online video-oriented properties receiving funding, StyleHaul recently announced it closed a $4.4 million series A round led by RezVen Partners.

The company is self-described as “the first global online video network dedicated to the next generation of fashion and beauty,” which when said in non-PR-speak roughly translates to “new media studio and YouTube network that creates original high-quality style-oriented content and aggregates and distributes programming from the most creative and style-savvy YouTube gurus.”

If that description makes StyleHaul sound sort of like a Machinima geared towards people who like and know a lot about clothes instead of people who like and know a lot about video games, that’s sort of the point.

Stephanie Horbaczewski founded StyleHaul with Allen and Aaron DeBevoise. Those are the gentlemen who created the latest and incredibly successful iteration of Machinima.com, which comes in third place on comScore’s Top 10 List of YouTube Partner Channels behind Vevo and Warner Music. The network creates programming like Bite Me, distributes programming like Mortal Kombat: Legacy, and receives over 340 million video views a month in the US and over one billion (with a “b”) video views a month worldwide.

The thinking was Horbaczewski and the DeBevoises could recreate those stats in a different content vertical. So far, they’re doing a great job.

StyleHaul currently claims over 500 content partners, produces a handful of original web series, and sees 120 million video views a month from nearly 25 million monthly unique viewers. The company’s been able to leverage that kind of viewership into creating branded online video campaigns for a variety of designers and fashion industry brands, including Olsenboye, Steve Madden, Michael Kors, Armani Exchange, Nine West, Bazaar, Teen Vogue, and many more.

Horbaczweski hopes to grow StyleHaul’s views and viewers and expand that list of advertising partners with the influx of cash. “We are going to further focus on the expansion and development of our global community, extend the reach of our original content and programming, and grow our sales efforts,” she said over e-mail. Anderee Berengian is confident she can make all that happen.

The lead investor at RezVen Partners behind the StyleHaul deal explained it wasn’t one particular metric, statistic, or case study that attracted him and his team to the company, but the company as a whole. “We made our decision based on StyleHaul’s model and overall operation, not any single statistic or component of the business,” Berengian said. “We particularly are impressed with StyleHaul’s leadership, the company’s business model, the vertical that they’re focused on, and the growth and scale of the online video ecosystem.”

Get your fix of fashion and beauty programming at YouTube.com/StyleHaul.