Unwell, the media company co-founded by “Call Her Daddy” podcast host Alex Cooper and her husband, Matt Kaplan, has landed its first outside investment, a deal that values the Gen Z-focused media business at $500 million.
The investment comes from WTSL, an investment firm led by Patrick Whitesell, the co-founder of talent agency WME and former executive chairman of its successor company, Endeavor. WTSL, which Whitesell launched in 2024 with backing from private equity firm Silver Lake, did not disclose the size of its investment in Unwell, though the deal establishes a $500 million pre-money valuation for the company, according to Unwell. Cooper and Kaplan, who self-funded Unwell since founding it in 2023, retain majority ownership of the business.
Unwell said the company has been profitable since its founding and is treating the new capital as growth funding rather than a lifeline. Beyond the money itself, Unwell said WTSL brings “deep strategic expertise, industry relationships and a proven track record of supporting some of the most innovative companies and storytellers in media,” pointing specifically to WTSL’s existing investment in Omaha Productions, the sports and entertainment company founded by former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning. WTSL’s broader portfolio also includes Diamond Baseball Holdings, InterPositive, TMWR Sports and League One Volleyball.
Cooper framed the investment as validation of Unwell’s reach among its core audience. “Trust has become the ultimate distribution channel and 70 million women a month tune into Unwell,” Cooper said in a statement announcing the deal, adding that the company plans to keep “scaling on all fronts” by combining nimble, social-first content production with a deep understanding of its audience’s cultural interests. Cooper said the new backing positions Unwell to accelerate growth through acquisitions and additional investments going forward.
Whitesell, in his own statement, credited Cooper and Kaplan with an unusual ability to anticipate shifting audience behavior. “Alex, Matt and the team have demonstrated an exceptional ability to anticipate where audiences are headed and create entertainment experiences that resonate deeply,” Whitesell said, adding that the company’s growth, audience connection and cultural relevance made it well positioned to help shape the future of media.
The funding announcement lands just weeks after a pair of media investigations detailed allegations of workplace dysfunction at Unwell. A June Vanity Fair investigation, based on interviews with more than 40 current and former employees and freelancers, included allegations from one freelancer who said Kaplan “creates the most toxic work environment that I’ve ever seen,” along with anonymous claims that Kaplan had questioned employees about their personal lives and commented on their physical appearance. A separate Bloomberg report in April said Kaplan had developed a reputation for frequently yelling at staff members and that some employees were “looking for the exit.”
Cooper addressed the allegations directly in a Wall Street Journal interview at the Cannes Lions festival in June, pushing back without directly denying specific claims. “I will just kind of leave it at ‘Don’t believe everything that you read on the internet,'” Cooper said, adding that she believed being a woman in the media industry brings added scrutiny. “I think, unfortunately, being a woman in this industry is extremely difficult because you’re held to a completely different standard,” she said, pointing to what she described as smear campaigns tied to competing narratives. Cooper has separately told Marie Claire that she and Kaplan work to foster what she called a “very positive and safe” environment for employees at the company.
Unwell has also weathered a series of public disputes tied to its podcast talent roster. Influencer Alix Earle’s “Hot Mess” podcast left Unwell’s network in 2025 amid what Cooper has described as “fake drama” stirred up by Earle, though Earle has not publicly detailed her reasons for departing. Cooper’s earlier, high-profile split from former “Call Her Daddy” co-host Sofia Franklyn also drew significant public attention in the years before Unwell’s founding.
Kaplan, who separately founded ACE Entertainment, the production company behind Netflix’s “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” franchise and the series “XO, Kitty,” said the company’s creator-driven approach has become increasingly attractive to major brands. “As the premier media company for women, we’re collaborating with some of the biggest brands in the world on creator-led strategies,” Kaplan said in a statement, arguing that traditional advertising alone no longer reaches fragmented audiences the way a platform built around trusted creators can.
Unwell says its audience skews heavily female, at 89%, with 72% of that audience between the ages of 18 and 35. The company reports nearly 100 million followers across its platforms and says it generated more than 1.7 trillion earned media impressions in 2025 alone. Its podcast network spans more than a dozen shows, supported by a significant partnership with SiriusXM, which signed Cooper to a three-year deal in 2024 worth as much as $125 million over the life of the agreement.
Beyond podcasting, Unwell has expanded into scripted and unscripted television, producing the “Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special” for Disney+, partnering with Peacock on live Paris Olympics programming, and launching the reality series “Love Overboard” with Hulu. The company also has a slate of projects with Netflix, including “Let’s Marry Harry” and “Icebreaker,” both set to begin shooting this fall, alongside a growing portfolio of YouTube-native series announced earlier this year at the platform’s Brandcast event. Unwell’s business extends further still into live events, including nationwide tours, spring break experiences and SXSW activations that the company says have drawn more than 150,000 attendees in person, as well as a consumer products line spanning energy drinks, hydration products and stick packs.
With its first outside capital now secured, Unwell’s leadership has signaled the company intends to pursue acquisitions and additional investments as it works to expand well beyond its podcasting roots into a broader, diversified media and consumer products company.
