Babish Culinary Universe plans to “set a new standard in culinary entertainment and storytelling in the digital media space” using cash from a multimillion-dollar investment by Made In Network.
With that investment, the YouTube production studio, founded (and largely fronted on-camera) by foodie creator Andrew Rea, is following in the footsteps of other creator-made companies like Mythical and Theorist Media, expanding its onscreen and offscreen talent to potentially become a legacy media presence in our industry.
Rea, who started the original channel Binging with Babish way back in 2006, has spent the past few years expanding his YouTube presence into a full “culinary universe,” tapping well-known digital talent like Senpai Kai, former Bon Appétit-er Sohla El-Waylly, and former senior Tasty manager Alvin Zhou to host their own series alongside his content. The channel just hit 10 million subscribers and brings in over 20 million views a month.
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Made In Network–a Nashville-based media company that works with around 30 creators across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram–has been a Babish production partner since 2017, and says the investment “isn’t us simply investing in a single food creator, but the next step in a long-standing collaborative partnership that has made Babish a force in the culinary world,” co-founder/CEO Kevin Grosch said in a statement.
“We believe in Andrew as a creative force and believe he will continue to shape what culinary content looks like for a long time,” Grosch added.
Exact financial details of the investment aren’t being disclosed, but Babish and Made In said the plan is to use the funds to “support new production hires to meet demand, increasing current staff by 50%.” There are plans to launch four additional series, introduce co-productions with new studio partners, and debut “a swath” of new Babish-branded products in brick-and-mortar stores in the coming months, it added.
“We’ve worked intimately with Made In Network for the past seven years, and we’re so excited to take our partnership to a whole new level,” Rea said in a statement. “Their investment has enabled us to operate better and ideate bigger, and we’re thrilled to show everyone the new business and creative ventures that will be coming out of this partnership.”
Made In Network also hinted this isn’t the last creator investment it’ll make: its stake in Babish “indicates future investments in the greater creator economy,” it said. We’ve written before about Made In Network’s approach and how it views creator partnerships the same way a TV network views show hosts: as part of a whole, where programming planning and production resources are centralized.
With that in mind, the fact that Made In is investing in BCU’s growth as a standalone entity is an interesting move. Perhaps the org will become a sort of creator company incubator, picking up individual creators and working with them as part of the network before investing in their individual businesses.
