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Kajabi, the tech startup that helps people create and sell online courses, has added Atlassian's former CRO Cameron Deatsch to its board.

Why it matters: The appointment brings product marketing expertise to the creator economy startup as it seeks to add and retain more customers, Kerry writes.

Catch up quick: Deatsch joined Australian enterprise software company Atlassian in 2012 as senior director of advocacy in its San Francisco office and was promoted to the C-suite in 2020. Prior, he worked at BEA Systems (acquired by Oracle) and Jive Software.

He left Atlassian in November 2023 with the goal of spending more time with family and serving as an independent board member. He joined the board of customer communications platform Intercom earlier this year.

Kajabi last raised $550 million in growth equity financing, led by Tiger Global Management, in 2021. The company is valued at more than $2 billion.

Zoom in: Deatsch tells Kerry that he became more familiar with Kajabi after its 2021 funding round and was intrigued by how it served niche creators, including how it did not rely on ad revenue sharing.

"I think the entire [creator] industry driven by the huge social platforms is really optimized around driving advertising revenue where those big platforms take the bulk of it," Deatsch says. "Kajabi flipped it on its head."

Deatsch says his expertise includes scaling revenue and customers and building teams around those goals. Atlassian also trained him on growth through both self-serve platforms and direct sales.

Other board members are Kajabi co-founder Kenny Rueter, former GoDaddy CEO Scott Wagner and Pinterest CMO Andréa Mallard.

Zoom out: Creator economy funding collapsed last year, and some startups in the sector like Jellysmack and Cameo made massive cuts.

But funding has picked up in 2024. It more than doubled in the first quarter compared to the prior year, per The Information's Creator Economy Database.

Deatsch says he is bullish on Kajabi given his belief that more people will be creating specialized content in the future.

"There's a ton of people with great knowledge and great skills to share," Deatsch says. "Advertising [revenue] doesn't make sense for a large portion of the [creator] market."

Fun fact: Deatsch is also spending his time away from a full-time role training for a triathlon, which takes place in his hometown of Tahoe on June 29.

1 big thing: Board boost

a photo illustration of Cameron Deatsch of Kajabi in front of a striped background

Photo illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios; Photo: Courtesy of Cameron Deatsch, Atlassian.com

Conservative TV network Newsmax said it's planning to go public and launched a $225 million private placement.

Why it's the BFD: Conservative companies see a financial opportunity in tapping into retail investment interest on the public market, and Newmax hopes to raise up to $75 million on a listing, Sara Fischer and Kia Kokalitcheva write.

Zoom in: In an investor presentation, Newsmax quoted former President Trump saying, "You like Newsmax, I like it too ... Newsmax has been really good ... people are watching it ... it's terrific."

The company said it plans to go public later this year or in 2025 either on the NYSE or Nasdaq with an offering of up to $75 million. Newsmax disclosed details of the $225 million private placement in a regulatory filing yesterday.

It cited a lack of trust in mainstream news sources and viewership growth as opportunities for the firm as a publicly traded company.  It touted future expansions into streaming, digital subscription products and e-commerce as other key growth areas.

The Boca Raton-based company earned $135 million in top-line revenue last year, it said, down from $148 million in 2021 following the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. It's projecting $180 million in revenue this year.

It didn't say whether it was profitable but predicted it would achieve "30% + EBITDA margins within the next few years."

2. The BFD: Media money

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy in March 2023. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Particle, an AI-powered news platform, raised $10.9 million as it continues to develop its core product.

Why it matters: The funding comes as publishers are experimenting with ways that AI can help consumers quickly consume and navigate news, Tim writes.

How it works: Particle, which was founded by ex-Twitter executives Sara Beykpour and Marcel Molina, uses AI to create bulleted summaries of news stories sourced from existing publishers.

"If three different outlets report on what seems to be the same story, we'll cluster it into a story and run it through our process," co-founder Sara Beykpour tells Tim.

The product is still in beta testing with a very small group of users, Beykpour says. There is no public launch date yet.

"As we expand our test line and start to learn about what's resonating with users, we will build the business model around that," she says.

Zoom in: Lightspeed Venture led the round, and German publisher Axel Springer participated.

Lightspeed's Michael Mignano will join Particle's board.

Prior investors Kindred Ventures, Adverb Ventures, Ev Williams, Scott Belsky and GC&H Investments participated in the round.

Earlier this year, Particle raised $4.4 million in seed funding.

The big picture: Newsrooms are fearful that using AI to summarize news articles could have an adverse effect on their business, since it could reduce traffic to publishers' websites (and thus reduce advertising dollars).

Particle signed its first content deal with Reuters, which will make the wire service one of its main sources, and Particle will subscribe to its newswire.

The goal, Beykpour says, is to find a way to compensate publishers.

"We're still building but we want to work with publishers to develop a model that's going to work," Beykpour says. "We don't think that can happen overnight. And we also don't want to build that in a silo. We want to build that in collaboration with publishers to make sure that it's a win-win."

3. Particle accelerator 

Illustration of a newspaper box with a glowing digital screen with binary code.

Madhive, the Goldman Sachs-backed ad tech firm valued at $1 billion, has agreed to acquire Frequence to further support local media advertising.

Why it matters: The deal grows Madhive's offerings beyond connected TV and digital video and into more media channels, Kerry writes.

Catch up quick: Madhive helps local TV companies like Tegna, Fox and Scripps sell CTV ads. Earlier this year, it launched a local marketplace for political ads. In 2023, Madhive raised $300 million from Goldman Sachs.

The acquisition aligns with what former CRO Jon Kaplan told Axios in January, when he said growth could come from expanding to more local sales organizations like newspapers, radio and out-of-home

Zoom in: Frequence's software focuses on automating ad sales and management across channels including CTV, websites, streaming audio, social media and out-of-home.

Based in Mountain View, California, and founded in 2010, Frequence did not raise outside capital.

Madhive CEO Spencer Potts tells Kerry that the initial priority will be integrating Frequence's tech into its existing offering, including its planning capabilities that automate campaign workflows across proposals, activation and analytics.

The acquisition will vastly expand Madhive's workforce. All 300 Frequence employees will join Madhive's team of 200. Frequence CEO Tom Cheli will serve as chief strategy officer and report to Madhive CEO Spencer Potts.

Terms were not disclosed. Madhive aims to close the deal within 45 days.

Context: Moelis & Co served as exclusive financial adviser and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati provided legal counsel to Frequence.

Latham and Watkins served as legal counsel to Madhive.

Goldman Sachs-backed Madhive to buy Frequence

4. Ad tech acquisition

Illustration of a bullhorn resting on top of a stack of one hundred dollar bills.

Go deeper in our full database in the Axios Pro Deals Tracker.

• Astrocade, an SF generative AI gaming startup co-founded by Fei-Fei Li, raised $12m in seed funding from AME Cloud Ventures, NVIDIA Ventures, Venture Reality Fund, Eric Schmidt, Niccolo De Masi, John Riccitiello, David Baszucki, Jerry Yang, Mike Abbott and others. astrocade.com

• Radian Arc, a cloud gaming and AI infrastructure provider, raised $9m in a round led by BITKRAFT Ventures. axios.link/3Vn7H59

• Apollo and Kyndryl are considering a bid for DXC Technology at between $22 and $25 a share, per Reuters. axios.link/3KE72r1

• ⚽ United Talent Agency, backed by EQT, acquired Representatives of Outstanding Footballers, a talent agency for soccer players. axios.link/4bSxl8V

• 🎾 Warner Bros. Discovery signed a 10-year media rights deal for the French Open beginning in 2025. axios.link/4cdghtY

5. Deal flow

• Sarah Friar, former Nextdoor CEO, was hired as CFO and Kevin Weil, formerly of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as CPO of OpenAI. axios.link/3VmPJj0

• Deva Bronson was promoted to EVP, head of media responsibility at dentsu. axios.link/3RiCoY4

• Samantha Melbourneweaver, formerly of the Los Angeles Times, was named managing editor, digital audience growth and engagement for NPR. axios.link/45eAJZj

• Yahoo Sports hires Olympians Allyson Felix, Kerri Walsh Jennings, Shawn Johnson East, Missy Franklin and Katie Hoff to be correspondents for the Paris Olympics. axios.link/3VbA9qk

6. Movin' on up (or out)

✨ AI may have just had its iPhone moment (Axios)

"In contrast to the current chatbots — which know about the world, but little about you beyond what you tell them — Apple is building a context engine that understands each customer and the information and people that matter most to them," Ina Fried writes.

🏀 WNBA soars to historic highs for TV ratings and attendance (Axios)

"The star power of Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky's Angel Reese helped drive the historic interest — something that the WNBA underscored in its statement announcing the record," Rebecca Falconer writes.

🍿 "Bad Boys 4" warms up cool summer at the theaters (Axios)

"The nearly two-hour 'Bad Boys' feature is [Will] Smith's first since slapping Chris Rock two years ago at the Oscars — an incident that continues to divide some fans, but clearly hasn't deterred all audiences, nor marketers," Hope King writes.

7. Channel surfing

an illustration of a poster that has a remote control in front of a sunset and says "channel surfing" on a dorm room wall

@tim_bays: "3 Body Problem" on Netflix. That giant eye in the sky still haunts me. 

@kerrymflynn: "Doctor Who" on Disney+ and "Hacks" on Max. Home in Brooklyn after 20 days away, so catching up on the episodes I've missed!

✏️ Thanks to Michael Flaherty for editing and Katie Lewis for copy editing this newsletter.

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June 11, 2024

1 big thing: Board boost