Fox Entertainment, making another move to embrace creator-driven content, has acquired rom-com podcast company Meet Cute.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Founded in 2019, New York-based Meet Cute had 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 Shah (pictured above) has joined Fox Entertainment as senior VP, 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 and soon-to-launch unscripted series,” the company said. Meet Cute’s “agile, cost-efficient production model” is a valuable collaboration tool for Fox Entertainment Studios “as it widens its storytelling reach.”
“Innovation in digital storytelling is shaping the future of entertainment, and with Meet Cute, we’re building a space where creators can move fast, take risks, and shape what’s next,” said Hannah Pillemer, head of scripted at Fox Entertainment Studios, who is overseeing Meet Cute. “It’s a creative lab for storytelling — developing and testing new voices and IP in real time and connecting 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 globally, the company claims. It has published 51 shows to date, per its Apple Podcasts channel, including “Burn, Baby,” “Arlo’s Type,” “Einstein and Elena,” “Dump Him!” starring Minnie Mills, and “Imperfect Match” starring Arden Cho. The company’s name refers to “a cute, charming or amusing first encounter between romantic partners (as in a movie),” according to Merriam-Webster.
The Meet Cute acquisition is part of Fox Entertainment’s long-term, tech-focused growth strategy, which the Fox Corp. division says is global, platform-agnostic and “talent-first.” Fox Entertainment recently entered into a reciprocal first-look deal with HarperCollins Publishers and invested in in Holywater, a Ukrainian tech firm focused on vertical video and microdramas. The goal is to have “a three-pronged ecosystem where IP can originate from any format — books, audio, or digital — and evolve seamlessly across media, while shortening traditional development cycles and allowing the studio to make data-informed decisions on what to scale into series, films or multiplatform franchises,” per Fox Entertainment’s announcement.
Shah said in a statement, “From day one, Meet Cute’s mission was to build stories at the speed of culture. Joining Fox Entertainment allows us to scale that vision — giving creators a faster path from idea to audience, integrating real-time audience feedback, and bringing new voices and formats to life across Fox’s global platforms.”
Shah, prior to founding Meet Cute, was a member of the investment team at Union Square Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm in New York. Prior to that, she worked as an equities trader at Goldman Sachs. Shah holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering with a minor in human biology from Stanford University.
Fox Entertainment comprises the Fox Television Network, Fox Entertainment Studios and Fox Entertainment Global, its worldwide content sales and licensing unit. Its original series include “The Simpsons,” “Doc,” “Extracted,” “Memory of a Killer,” “The Masked Singer,” “The Floor,” “Animal Control,” “Going Dutch,” “Murder in a Small Town,” “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Lego Masters.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com ’
