Charles King Portrait - P 2015
Courtesy of MACROEight months after departing WME to form multicultural media firm MACRO, Charles King is revealing a bit more about the backers of his new venture.
Earlier this summer, MACRO closed an eight-figure round of funding that THR reported it was raising in January. The investment was led by Emerson Collective, the investment vehicle founded by Laurene Powell Jobs — the widow of Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs — that backs social entrepreneurs focused on education, immigration and innovation. She has made other investments in media in the past, most notably in journalism startup Ozy Media in 2013.
“Charles is uniquely poised to lead what’s sure to become the kind of media company that will launch careers and brands, but more importantly add rich value to our entertainment culture,” said Powell Jobs. “Charles has an extraordinary set of creative instincts — he’s demonstrated a remarkable ability to amplify talent, trends and content to multicultural audiences throughout his career.”
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Other investors that participated in the round include multimedia and entertainment company MNM Creative, Michael Kassan‘s advisory firm MediaLink, MACRO advisor Raymond J. McGuire, entrepreneur Justin Yoshimura and Caltius Capital’s Michael Kane.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled with this incredible group of partners and investors. Among them, they represent some of the most boundary-pushing, innovative thinkers and leaders in their respective fields of technology, finance and media,” said King. “Most importantly, these individuals ascribe to the global vision of MACRO and understand what a tremendous opportunity awaits us. Their endorsement enables MACRO to create universally themed premium content for the African American, Latino and multicultural market, which has been vastly underserved for too long.”
King founded MACRO in early 2015 to develop and distribute feature films, TV series and digital content targeting multicultural audiences. He told THR at the time that Hollywood hasn’t been focusing on these under-served markets, which has created “a huge void and a huge opportunity.” He currently has two projects in the works from filmmakers and former clients Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) and Craig Brewer (Hustle & Flow).
