Ari Emanuel’s WME Funds Chill and its 18 Million Users

It’s been five months since Chill evolved from an online destination for synchronous social video consumption with Duplo-looking avatars and virtual rooms, into an online destination that makes it “dead simple” to watch and share online vide0s.

In that timeframe, the platform conceived by Brian Norgard and Dan Gould and elevated to internet prominence by the pair and the their all-star team of coders and facilitators of strategic partnerships has amassed a user base 18 million individuals strong (with 10 million of those 18 million defined as “active”), partnered with big name brands, Hollywood celebrities, and other internet destinations (like Puma, TMZ, Jimmy Kimmel, Thrillist, Chow, Tubefilter, and more) to become their social video discovery and sharing platform of choice, and secured more than $8 million in funding from some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry.

Andrew Wallenstein at Variety broke the news Ari Emanuel’s WME lead Chill’s $8 million-and-change Series A financing round. Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkis Caufield and Byers

took lead on the round with WME, while Atlas Venture and Lowercase Capital also made investments.

“In a world with billions of connected smartphones, tablets and TVs, the opportunity to reimagine the future of entertainment is tremendous,” said Chi-Hua Chien, Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. “Chill builds upon the power of social platforms to organize video into interesting, relevant streams and distribute that content to users on the wide variety of devices they love using.”

So, what’s Chill going to do with all that extra cash? A lot of things, but in the near term expect to see more strategic partnerships with more recognizable Hollywood names and organizations, especially clients of William Morris Endeavor. We’ll let you know when they happen. Stay tuned.