Todd Wagner - H 2015
AP ImagesTech mogul Todd Wagner has acquired Prizeo, a celebrity-based charitable fundraising platform. As the founder and CEO of video-based charity organization Chideo, Wagner’s newest move furthers his commitment to impacting the philanthropy space through the merging of entertainment and technology.
Prizeo is a digital fundraising platform co-founded by Bryan Baum, Leo Seigal and Andrej Pancik that enables celebrities and influencers to mobilize their fan bases to raise funds and awareness for their chosen causes. In the past two and a half years, the charity platform has held over 100 crowdfunding sweepstakes featuring unique celebrity experiences — from hanging out in the studio with Justin Bieber to playing with dolphins with Michael Phelps — all to raise millions of dollars for nearly 100 different charities.
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Prizeo will now serve as a sister company to Chideo, adding to the network’s roster of exclusive content and celebrity experiences in an effort to raise awareness and funds for hundreds of nonprofit organizations around the world. Following the acquisition, Prizeo will continue to operate as its own entity in West Hollywood, Calif. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Prizeo brings us increased credibility as it is a proven experiences platform with a roster of great celebrities supported by a very strong team,” said Wagner. “This means immediate synergy with Chideo, whose growing syndication partners and multiple fundraising streams will be able to extend Prizeo’s reach, and allow both companies to make a real impact on causes everywhere.”
In the late 90’s, Wagner helped pioneer the streaming media landscape as CEO of Broadcast.com. Now, his focus on Chideo has allowed him to consider how charities and celebrities can leverage this same basic technology to bring heightened awareness and support to global issues. Wagner’s aim is to create a unique over-the-top broadcast network approach for the philanthropic arena.
“Chideo’s goal from day one has been to provide the necessary tools and platform to maximize awareness and dollars for charities,” he added. “The current system of giving is largely offline and inefficient, resulting in an older demographic of givers, which, ultimately, is not meeting the needs of the next generation of donors. Since only 8 percent of money donated to charities occurs online, it is clear that the digital landscape is still a largely untapped tool in fundraising. We will continue making deals and partnerships like this one as long as we keep bridging the gap.”
The acquisition of Prizeo is the second significant deal Wagner has made this year to expand Chideo’s reach. Last month, Chideo announced an exclusive partnership with Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., which expanded the charity network’s reach to 42 million households through 161 stations nationwide. Wagner also co-owns 2929 Entertainment with Mark Cuban, along with a number of entertainment proprieties, including HDNet Films, Magnolia Pictures and Landmark Theaters.
