An eight-year-old investing podcast created by two former ANU students and backed by the likes of Stake’s Matt Leibowitz and Zip’s Larry Diamond has been acquired by BetaShares in a deal worth $8.5 million.
Equity Mates was founded by Bryce Leske and Alec Renehan in 2017 and has produced more than a dozen different podcasts over that period.
A BetaShares release announcing the deal, said it “will commit to a further significant financial investment to help the companies deliver on our shared vision” and the media business will continue to run independently.
While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Capital Brief reports sources putting a price tag of around $8.5 million on the acquisition.
“Equity Mates has built a trusted platform that makes investing relatable and approachable for everyday Australians,” the BetaShares release said.
“Following the investment, Equity Mates will accelerate a range of growth initiatives, including expanding its content offering, enhancing community engagement, and building new educational tools – all while maintaining its distinct voice and brand.”
The finance and investor podcast was backed by several financial heavy hitters over the last five years, kicking off with pre-Seed funding from Matt Leibowitz, CEO of digital brokerage platform Stake, in November 2020. Leibowitz mentored the duo from the inception of Equity Mates, which by then had 100,000 unique monthly listeners, and spoke to everyone from former PM and investor Malcolm Turnbull, footballer Chris Judd, finance expert Alan Kohler and cricketer Usman Khawaja.
A year later that raised a $1.2 million Seed round backed by ASX-listed Magellan Financial Group, Zip cofounder Larry Diamond and wealth adviser Charlie Viola back when he ran Pitcher Partners.
Naturally Leske and Renehan turned to their podcast to announce the sale
“The deal is subject to all normal regulatory approvals, but for us it’s really exciting,” Renehan said.
“It’s not a deal where we sell and we walk away, but rather it’s an investment allowing us to do more, probably more than we could ever do on our own. BetaShares are going to help us grow the team. They’re going to help us produce more content, and ultimately they’re going to help us reach more Australians and engage them in the possibilities of investing.”
Leske said the sale “is a huge milestone… that we are incredibly proud of”.
“But there’s only so much we can do sitting here in this room, which is why BetaShares, from the first moment we spoke to them, it felt that Betashares was the right partner,” he said.
BetaShares have given us the guarantee that we will be able to continue the same tone, the same voice, the same style, the same editorial independence that we have always had.”
BetaShares was founded in 2009, and has $50 billion in assets under management.
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