NYC-based Thrillist Media Group, which started out as a daily email lifestyle newsletter for guys and expanded into fashion with its 2010 acquisition of men’s clothing site JackThreads, will officially announce Friday that it’s raised $ 13.1 million in Series A funding.
The round was led by Oak Investment Partners, the VC firm that has also invested in media companies like the Huffington Post, Bleacher Report and Demand Media, and Oak’s Fred Harmon now joins Thrillist’s board of directors. Lerer Ventures and Pilot Group also participated. Thrillist founder Ben Lerer is the son of Lerer Ventures’ Ken Lerer.
Thrillist launched in 2005 with under $ 2 million in funding from the Pilot Group. The company now publishes email newsletters in twenty markets, has over five million subscribers and says it’s “on pace to approach” $ 60 million in revenues in 2012, compared to $ 33 million in 2011. It plans to use the new funding to build out its current content business, develop mobile and expand into “new commerce categories.”
Thrillist has “big plans for evolving the Thrillist experience on the web, as well as on mobile and in video,” said cofounder Adam Rich. “We also have significant aspirations to continue developing JackThreads into a lifestyle destination that doesn’t just sell products, but also perpetuates a lifestyle that we know our guys covet.”
