Joseph Gordon-Levitt's music collaboration platform HitRecord raised $6.4 million in Series A funding this week. The news, announced at Upfront Venture's annual summit on Tuesday, marks the end of a 15-year period in which the company was entirely self-funded by the actor.
Gordon-Levitt created the website that would become HitRecord back in 2004 as an outlet for his creativity between projects. In a post on HitRecord, Gordon-Levitt wrote: "When I first started [HitRecord] with my brother, many many years ago, it was just a hobby, it was a pre-fab PHP message board we ran and this little community started to form, where people would make little videos and songs and stories and stuff together."
In 2010, the site pivoted into a kind of online production company. In the intervening years, HitRecord produced a Emmy-winning television series, short films that ran at Sundance, and published books and many, many albums. The company, which managed to stay cash flow positive after the transition, pays collaborators for every project sold. To date, HitRecord has dolled out upwards of $3 million to creators on the site.
This week's funding represents another major transition for the company — this time from production company to collaborative platform. The round was led by Javelin Venture Partners (Clutter, Thumbtack, MasterClass), with participation from Crosslink Capital, Advancit Capital and execs from YouTube, Twitch and MasterClass.
The company currently has 24 employees. The leadership team consists of CEO Gordon-Levitt, President Jared Geller, and Creative Director Marke Johnson. Geller and Johnson were both with HitRecord as co-founders when the site relaunched in 2010.
With $6.4 million in the bank, Gordon-Levitt joins the ranks of A-list Silicon Beach founders like Jessica Alba (The Honest Company), Wil.i.am (i.am+), Ed Norton (Edo) and Reese Witherspoon (Hello Sunshine).
Welcome to the beach.
