How London’s Electrify Rolls Up YouTube Channels Turning Creators Into Cash Cows

Co-CEOs Ian Shepherd and Owen Maher deliberation they’ve recovered an reply to the problem that’s agelong kept organization investors wary of acquiring brands successful the $250 cardinal creator economy: turning volatile personality-driven brands into sustainable media businesses. Their startup, London-based Electrify Video Partners, buys mostly equity stakes successful established independent YouTube channels which it calls creator-founder knowledge brands. It past provides superior and operational support to standard them. The institution has grown quickly since its 2021 founding, adding astatine slightest 9 flagship YouTube channels to its portfolio. Its largest media property, Veritasium, whose transmission posts subject oriented videos for illustration “How One Company Secretly Poisoned The Planet” boasts 21 cardinal subscribers and complete 4 cardinal views.

According to PitchBook, The institution has attracted astir $185 cardinal from backstage equity firms including London’s Capital D and New York City’s Equable Capital and MEP Capital, connected the stake that these brands tin person a life beyond their original creators. While advertisers support flocking to influencers—Forbes’ apical 50 creators earned a collective $1 billion successful 2026—investors interest that these brands are excessively limited connected the characteristic successful beforehand of the camera. Maher and Shepherd deliberation the solution lies successful little flashy categories of channels and building well-staffed accumulation and improvement teams.

Electrify seeks retired Youtube channels that are established leaders successful a definite niche, beryllium it coding, aviation aliases Lego. They are peculiarly drawn to brands that nutrient videos that “inform and inspire.” In different words, mini documentaries tailor-made for Millennials and Generation Z who are funny but person short attraction spans.

“There's tons of viral trend-led sweetener unreserved type contented and we really want to attraction connected thoughtful informative contented that has a affirmative spot successful the world,” says Shepherd, who believes the documentary-oriented channels it backs person an “evergreen” worth that’s much unchangeable than news aliases viral content.

“A video astir Pluto aliases astir achromatic holes is conscionable arsenic applicable successful 5 years arsenic it is today,” says Shepherd. Electrify’s goals are high. Board president and erstwhile YouTube exec Timothy Shey sees the video transmission rotation up arsenic the Condé Nast of the creator economy, wherever each marque successful the portfolio is somebody’s favorite.

“Institutional investors are starting to really quickly aftermath up to this,” insists Shey.

The spark that created Electrify occurred astir 2016, erstwhile Shepherd, who headed business improvement astatine Disney, saw the media manufacture displacement successful existent time. Shepherd was charged pinch building retired Disney’s YouTube-based multi-channel network, Maker Studios, and saw that young people, including Shepherd’s past eight-year-old daughter, were turning distant from accepted tv programming.

“She really wanted to watch our YouTube creators and not the Disney shows that the TV channels were producing,” says Shepherd.

After Shepherd near Disney successful 2018, he launched a startup called The Social Store, aimed astatine helping the U.K.’s biggest YouTubers build franchises, big events and waste products. Then successful 2021, he sewage a LinkedIn connection from Maher and Justin Reizes, the different founders of Electrify.

Maher and Reizes were longtime investors who had worked together astatine KKR and system investments successful immoderate media assets, but nary tied to the creator economy. Maher had seen that “eyeballs and advertizing dollars pursuing those eyeballs” were shifting toward integer media. The brace identified Shepherd arsenic personification who had expertise and connections successful the creator space, and reached out. On August 18, 2021, the trio teamed up to commencement Electrify.

Electrify’s biggest acquisition to day is Veritasium, a YouTube transmission pinch 21 cardinal subscribers created successful 2010 by Derek Muller, an Australian-born PhD successful Physics Education Research. Veritasium takes niche subject topics for illustration worldly subject and particle physics and presents them pinch the accumulation worth and storytelling of a web documentary. Think a deep-dive into aerogel, the world’s lightest solid, pinch 60 cardinal views, and a related 12 infinitesimal video “I Waterproofed Myself With Aerogel!” aliases a 30-minute documentary astir why it is almost intolerable to make bluish LEDs.

In precocious 2025, 2 years aft the acquisition, Veritasium’s Muller posted a video announcing the partnership, which according to U.K, disclosures gave Electrify 80% ownership. In it, he said he was attracted to this arrangement, reasoning it would let him to measurement distant from immoderate of the operational responsibilities of moving a awesome YouTube brand.

“I ne'er wanted to woody pinch hiring, and taxes, and each that stuff,” said Muller, 43. “I conscionable wanted to make videos.”

He besides noted that since the 2023 investment, subscriber counts had accrued and the transmission was capable to make much ambitious, longer-form content, owed to Electrify’s backing and committedness to standard production.

Veritasium’s payroll has grown eight-fold—from 4 to 34—since it was acquired successful 2023. Electrify besides scouts caller gross sources for their brands beyond the sponsorship deals and programmatic advertizing that typically thrust YouTube earnings. Veritasium released a tabletop crippled called Elements of Truth successful 2025 that did complete $1 cardinal successful income connected Kickstarter successful the first week.

In his video, Muller besides announced that he would walk much clip distant from the channel, and whitethorn look less, aliases not astatine all, successful early videos. Separating the creator from the transmission addresses investors’ biggest concern: key-person risk, aliases the interest that the occurrence of the marque is excessively tied to 1 individual. This interest could explicate why investors person been hesitant to bargain existing brands successful the creator economy, which Goldman Sachs estimates could turn to half a trillion dollars by 2027.

“Whatever the creator does—if they get deed by a autobus aliases determine to do thing else—we could beryllium very susceptible to that,” says Stephan Lobmeyr, Electrify’s lead investor from Capital D.

Electrify’s first buyout successful 2021 was Astrum, an astronomy-focused transmission founded by Alex McColgan, who has been moving the transmission since 2013. Creator McColgan has since stepped backmost from the day-to-day operations of the channel. Video ideas, which mightiness see an hour-long heavy dive into NASA’s Juno ngo to Jupiter, are thought up by the channel’s improvement team, written and edited by freelancers and reviewed by fact-checkers. McColgan still narrates the videos and offers feedback connected the scripts, but avoids overmuch of the accumulation and development. Last year, Electrify brought successful tv documentary seasoned Jess Jordan to tally Astrum, which has 2.85 cardinal subscribers and almost 600 cardinal views.

While Electrify refuses to talk the specifics of its financial results, according to the latest UK authorities filings, Electrify’s gross grew five-fold complete the past 2 years, reaching $30 cardinal successful 2025. Electrify is financed pinch some backstage equity, led by $85 cardinal from Capital D, and a indebtedness facility. It now says it employs much than 120 group crossed its portfolio brands. According to UK disclosures the institution vanished 2025 successful the reddish arsenic liking payments connected $40 cardinal successful indebtedness astir tripled.

“I deliberation these are perfectly basal investments,” lead investor Lobmeyr says. “If you want to standard these channels and make them much viable complete the agelong term, you request to broaden the accomplishment group wrong a channel.”

The marketplace for acquiring and scaling creator-owned brands remains thin, but location person been a fewer precocious floor plan deals. In 2021, erstwhile Disney labor and their Blackstone-backed Candle Media bought the institution down Cocomelon, the animated children’s YouTube transmission pinch 200 cardinal subscribers and much than 2 1000 videos, for $3 billion. That aforesaid year, Miami’s Recurrent Ventures acquired the automobile-focused Donut Media brand. Several of Donut’s hosts later left citing imaginative disagreements pinch the company’s management.

“There aren't excessively galore businesses that are specifically doing what we are doing, which is buying these assets and moving alongside the creators,”says Shepherd.

Private equity-backed extracurricular finance successful creator brands has met immoderate guidance from creators and audiences. YouTuber Gen Kimura, whose caller video astir backstage equity turning YouTube into “slop” sewage 4.7 cardinal views, said he would not judge an connection from Electrify were 1 extended, citing concerns astir imaginative independence.

“At the extremity of the day, it is simply a business determination for them [acquisition companies] and they want to recoup that investment,” says Kimura. “Creating videos connected much arguable topics wouldn't really alert pinch that.” Given that Kimura’s channel, which has only 784,000 subscribers, specializes successful exposing corruption, is not apt connected immoderate institution’s acquisition target list.

While Electrify maintains that its video influencers clasp imaginative control, the firm’s postulation of portfolio companies is designed to lure successful premium sponsorships. Executives and investors item that Electrify’s contented is “brand-safe.”

“This is simply a class wherever sponsors cognize what they're getting, they understand the mission, and they understand what a channel's about,” says Shey. “An advertiser is going to beryllium a batch much apt to want to do a multi-month, multi-year committedness to channels for illustration ours because they've sewage a proven way grounds and they cognize what they're partnering with.”

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