Alex Cooper’s profession has featured some more and more huge numbers.
In 2021, she left Barstool Sports activities behind and signed a $60 million cope with Spotify for “Name Her Daddy.” Three years later, she signed a brand new cope with SiriusXM price as much as $125 million. Now there’s a fair greater quantity connected to Cooper’s rising enterprise empire: $500 million.
Unwell, the media firm Cooper co-founded along with her husband, producer Matt Kaplan, has taken its first-ever exterior funding in a deal that values the corporate at $500 million earlier than the brand new cash goes in. The funding comes from WTSL, the media, leisure and sports activities funding agency headed by longtime Hollywood energy dealer Patrick Whitesell and Jason Lublin. WTSL is backed by non-public fairness big Silver Lake.
The quantity WTSL invested has not been disclosed. Neither has the possession break up between Cooper, Kaplan, and some other present shareholders. However the transaction offers us one thing far more concrete than a speculative journal estimate: an out of doors investor truly put cash into Unwell at a $500 million pre-money valuation.
And apparently, Cooper and Kaplan are planning to make use of that cash to get a lot greater.
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First, What Does A “$500 Million Pre-Cash Valuation” Really Imply?
It doesn’t imply somebody handed Alex Cooper a $500 million test.
And it doesn’t imply Unwell was bought.
A “pre-money” valuation is what buyers and the corporate agreed Unwell was price instantly earlier than WTSL’s new capital was added. So, hypothetically, if WTSL invested $50 million, the ensuing post-money valuation could be $550 million, and WTSL would personal roughly 9% of the corporate. That is simply an illustration. The precise funding quantity has not been revealed.
What’s essential is that Cooper and Kaplan had beforehand constructed and funded the operation with out exterior buyers. This financing establishes a real-world benchmark for the enterprise whereas leaving the founders with an undisclosed possession place in an organization now valued within the lots of of tens of millions.
How A lot of Unwell Does Alex Personal?
That is the $500 million query.
Neither Alex Cooper nor Unwell has disclosed precisely how a lot of the corporate Cooper personally owns. We do know that Cooper and her husband, Matt Kaplan, co-founded the enterprise and financed it themselves earlier than the WTSL deal, which was described as Unwell’s first exterior funding.
That makes it cheap to imagine Cooper nonetheless owns a really substantial share of the corporate, however any particular determine is essentially an estimate.
If Cooper and Kaplan started with one thing near an equal possession break up, Cooper may need owned roughly 50% earlier than accounting for worker fairness or different shareholders. The brand new WTSL funding would dilute that stake considerably. For instance, if WTSL invested $50 million on the reported $500 million pre-money valuation, the investor would personal roughly 9% of the corporate after the deal. A hypothetical 50% Cooper stake would consequently fall to round 45%.
So, till extra info turns into public, an affordable working estimate would put Cooper’s possession someplace within the neighborhood of 40% to 50%.
At a $500 million valuation, a 40% stake would have a headline worth of $200 million. A forty five% stake could be price $225 million. A 50% stake could be price $250 million.
Who Is Patrick Whitesell?
For those who’re making an attempt to know why this deal issues, the investor is nearly as attention-grabbing because the valuation.
Patrick Whitesell spent a long time constructing one of the crucial highly effective careers in Hollywood illustration. He beforehand served as co-CEO of WME and later held senior management roles at Endeavor alongside Ari Emanuel. One other enjoyable reality about Patrick – his ex-wife is Lauren Sanchez, who’s now married to Jeff Bezos.
After leaving Endeavor, Whitesell launched WTSL with backing from Silver Lake. The agency is particularly concentrating on companies in media, sports activities, and leisure – significantly corporations that may grow to be bigger platforms slightly than merely producing one profitable piece of content material.
Certainly one of WTSL’s different investments ought to sound acquainted to CelebrityNetWorth readers.
In 2025, a Whitesell-led funding platform invested in Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions at a valuation north of $750 million. The deal concerned a stake of roughly 10%, that means greater than $75 million flowed into Manning’s media firm. WTSL’s portfolio now consists of Omaha alongside companies resembling Diamond Baseball Holdings, TMWR Sports activities, and League One Volleyball.
In different phrases, Whitesell is not merely shopping for into a well-liked podcast. He is betting that Cooper can construct Unwell right into a diversified media firm.
Unwell Is No Longer Simply A Podcast Community
Cooper and Kaplan launched Unwell in 2023 beneath their holding firm, Trending.
At first look, the apparent centerpiece was “Name Her Daddy,” together with a community of podcasts constructed round youthful creators. However Kaplan introduced one thing essential to the equation: Hollywood manufacturing infrastructure.
His ACE Leisure produced Netflix’s massively profitable “To All of the Boys” films and the spinoff sequence “XO, Kitty.” Combining Kaplan’s movie and tv operation with Cooper’s huge direct relationship with younger feminine audiences created the muse for one thing a lot broader than an audio community.
At present, Unwell has greater than a dozen podcasts, movie and tv manufacturing, reside occasions, client merchandise, and a artistic company. Cooper says the corporate reaches round 70 million girls monthly.
Its greatest distribution relationship stays SiriusXM. In 2024, Cooper signed a three-year SiriusXM settlement price as a lot as $125 million. Importantly, that contract was not merely a wage for Cooper to file “Name Her Daddy.” SiriusXM acquired promoting and distribution rights involving “Name Her Daddy” and Unwell’s wider roster of present and future reveals, together with extra programming and occasions.
Unwell Has Been Increasing Quick
The corporate has been asserting offers nicely past podcasting.
Unwell is creating a sequence adaptation of Hannah Grace’s bestselling romance novel “Icebreaker” for Netflix and a movie adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s “Deep Finish.” It additionally has a Hulu adaptation of Aggie Blum Thompson’s thriller novel “You Should Know” in growth and has partnered with Google on the micro-drama venture “Shifting On.” The podcast community has continued including reveals as nicely.
The acknowledged plan for WTSL’s capital is extra enlargement, together with potential investments and acquisitions.
And there is already one other signal that Cooper is reorganizing round Unwell’s subsequent section.
This week, it emerged that Cooper is leaving UTA, the company that helped negotiate her large SiriusXM settlement, and transferring to CAA. Sources near Unwell advised Web page Six that the corporate has spent current months mapping out its subsequent stage of development following the WTSL transaction, together with reconsidering its conventional expertise illustration.
Unwell now employs greater than 100 folks, in line with that report, and is making an attempt to function concurrently throughout podcasts, tv, movie, occasions, client merchandise, and promoting.
That is a really totally different enterprise from the one Cooper launched with Sofia Franklyn eight years in the past.
The Timing Is not Completely Rosy
Curiously, the $500 million financing comes throughout considered one of Cooper’s extra sophisticated stretches within the public eye.
Her Unwell beverage operation, launched with Nestlé and bought prominently by means of Goal, is reportedly being discontinued after lower than two years. The road expanded from hydration drinks into vitality, protein, and focus merchandise, however remaining stock is predicted to be bought by means of this fall.
Unwell has additionally confronted scrutiny over its office tradition. A Self-importance Truthful investigation earlier this 12 months included allegations from present and former staff about Kaplan’s administration type. Cooper has disputed the broader portrayal of the corporate.
And Unwell’s relationship with Alix Earle, as soon as one of many community’s marquee signings, ended when Earle’s “Sizzling Mess” podcast left the corporate.
From Barstool Contract Dispute To A $500 Million Firm
There is a fairly outstanding full-circle factor to all of this.
Again in 2020, Cooper and Franklyn have been locked in a really public struggle with Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports activities over their contracts and possession of “Name Her Daddy.” Cooper in the end made the essential determination to return to Barstool, proceed the present with out Franklyn, and safe a path towards possession of the mental property.
That call laid the groundwork for the $60 million Spotify deal.
The Spotify deal helped lay the groundwork for Unwell.
Unwell helped produce the $125 million SiriusXM settlement.
And now an out of doors funding agency led by considered one of Hollywood’s strongest dealmakers has agreed that the corporate Cooper and Kaplan constructed is price $500 million earlier than WTSL’s funding is even added.
Cooper began “Name Her Daddy” as a podcast. Eight years later, buyers are valuing the corporate constructed round it like a critical Hollywood media enterprise.
