Fox Entertainment has acquired romantic podcast company Meet Cute in a new move to embrace creator-driven content.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Founded in 2019, New York-based Meet Cute has raised $9.25 million in funding from investors including Union Square Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Shari Redstone’s Advancit Capital, and LocalGlobe.
Meet Cute founder and CEO Naomi Sher (pictured above) has joined Fox Entertainment as senior vice president of operations and strategy. In that role, she will focus on “AI innovation, entertainment technology, and IP expansion,” according to the company.
Under Fox Entertainment, Meet Cute will “serve as a rapid-development content incubator, producing premium scripted series and soon-to-be-launched unscripted series,” the company said. Meet Cute’s “agile, cost-effective production model” is a valuable collaboration tool for Fox Entertainment Studios that “expands the scope of storytelling.”
“Digital storytelling innovations are shaping the future of entertainment, and with MeetCute, we’re building a space where creators can move quickly, take risks, and shape what’s next,” said Hannah Pillemer, head of scriptwriting at Fox Entertainment Studios, which oversees MeetCute. “This is a creative lab for storytelling, developing and testing new voices and IP in real time to connect bold, emotionally resonant stories to audiences everywhere.”
Meet Cute has released more than 200 hours of original “bite-sized” scripted audio programming, reaching more than 2.5 million listeners worldwide, the company claims. The Apple Podcasts channel has 51 shows to date, including “Burn, Baby,” “Arlo’s Type,” “Einstein and Elena,” and “Dump Him!” “The Imperfect Match” starring Minnie Mills and “The Imperfect Match” starring Arden Cho. According to Merriam-Webster, the company’s name refers to “a cute, charming, or funny first meeting between romantic partners (as in the movies).”
The acquisition of Meet Cute is part of Fox Entertainment’s long-term technology-led growth strategy, which the Fox Corp. division says is global, platform-agnostic and “people-first.” Fox Entertainment recently signed a mutual first-look agreement with HarperCollins Publishers and invested in Holywater, a Ukrainian technology company focused on vertical video and microdramas. According to a Fox Entertainment announcement, the goal is to “create a three-pronged ecosystem where IP can come from any format, including book, audio, and digital, and evolve seamlessly across media, while shortening traditional development cycles and empowering studios to make data-driven decisions about what to expand into series, movies, or multi-platform franchises.”
“From day one, Meet Cute’s mission has been to build stories at the speed of culture. Joining Fox Entertainment allows us to expand on that vision, giving creators a faster path from idea to audience, integrating real-time audience feedback, and enabling new voices and formats across Fox’s global platforms,” Shah said in a statement.
Prior to founding Meet Cute, Mr. Shah was a member of the investment team at Union Square Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm in New York. Prior to that, he worked as an equity trader at Goldman Sachs. Shah earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a minor in human biology from Stanford University.
Fox Entertainment is comprised of Fox Television Network, Fox Entertainment Studios, and its global content sales and licensing division, Fox Entertainment Global. Original series include “The Simpsons,” “Doc,” “Extracted,” “Memories of a Murderer,” “The Masked Singer,” “The Floor,” “Animal Control,” “Going Dutch,” “Small Town Murder,” “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Lego Masters.”
