Horror Media Startup, Crypt TV Raises $3.5M from Huffington Post Cofounder

Crypt TV, based in the US has announced that it will use the funding led by Lerer Hippeau Ventures to expand into serialized content.

The mission of Crypt TV is to create “original, dark and edgy content with the potential to grow into something bigger. We champion creators pushing boundaries with their storytelling in the hopes of creating a community embracing a shared belief that #WeirdIsGood.”

Kenneth Lerer is an American businessman and a media executive that is incredibly influential in the American media industry. He cofounded The Huffington Post, the American news website and served as its chairman before it was acquired by AOL in 2011 (he also was an executive at AOL Time Warner). Lerer has also invested in Buzzfeed and Business Insider. In late 2016 Discovery Communications went into a 550 million dollar deal with companies run by Lerer’s son and daughter as well.

Crypt TV is the latest addition to the plethora of media channels Mr. Lerer is a part of. The lead funder of the seed round is Lerer Hippeau Ventures of which Mr. Lerer is managing partner. Other investors included Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal and Advancit Capital, an early-stage investment firm cofounded by media mogul Sumner Redstone’s daughter, Shari Redstone,

The digital horror content creator was founded in 2015 and its bizzare, often downright nightmarish videos has garnered over 2 million Facebook followers and claims to have 30 million views a month.

It was cofounded by Jack Davis and American horror film director Eli Roth.

Wall Street Journal quotes Mr. Lerer as saying, “Jack is a very smart guy, and he’s [mastered] great viral content made for social,” a piece of the puzzle that must fall into place if Crypt TV plans to go from “short form to serial form to long form, [as] it should [to] be a really successful company.”