Curiosity invests in Nebula streaming platform

US factual company Curiosity has invested into Nebula, the creator-owned streaming and technology platform.

With 140+ active creators who together have over 120 million collective YouTube subscribers, Nebula has grown to more than 350,000 paying subscribers in less than two years.

Curiosity, the parent company of SVOD platform CuriosityStream, is taking a ‘significant’ minority position in Nebula as well as board representation. The deal values Nebula in excess of $50 million.

The two companies have previously worked together offering bundled subscriptions to the Curiosity Stream service and Nebula. Nebula will use the investment to build new product features, launch new business lines for creators, and market the Nebula platform to new audiences. Nebula will continue to be run by Dave Wiskus, CEO of parent company Standard.

“Nebula has become the largest creator-owned and operated streaming platform in the world in just two years, and their mission perfectly aligns with our own – offering quality entertainment for people who want to know more,” said Clint Stinchcomb, president and chief executive officer of Curiosity. “There has never been a more exciting time to be a creator, and what Dave and his team have built in such a short time is especially forward-looking as creators want to take control of their businesses and audience relationships.”

“Standard is a group of creators working together to build tools and systems to ensure the long-term sustainability of the content creators, especially within the middle class,” said Wiskus. “Nebula is our flagship on this mission, and Curiosity has demonstrated an understanding, respect, and commitment to that philosophy at every step over the last two years and is the perfect partner to help us dial up growth and features to ensure Nebula reaches its full potential.”

Examples of creators on the Nebula platform include:  Marques Brownlee (14.5 million YouTube subscribers), Wendover Productions (3 million YouTube subscribers), Jordan Harrod (71 million YouTube subscribers), Real Science (500,000 YouTube subscribers) and Real Engineering (3.1 million YouTube subscribers).

Curiosity went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange in October last year, following a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Software Acquisition Group – that left the company well capitalised, with zero debt and an estimated $180m of cash on the balance sheet on closing.