Pipe, creator of a trading platform for recurring revenues, has acquired Purely Capital, a media and entertainment financing company, and is launching a new Media & Entertainment division on the platform. This new division will help producers, rights owners, and distributors drive immediate up-front revenue from their long-term licensing contracts from investment-grade streaming services and broadcasters, including Amazon, Netflix, and Disney. The acquisition is a further step in Pipe’s mission to be the trading platform for any company with recurring revenues—regardless of industry—that’s looking to fund its growth on its own terms, without restrictive debt or dilution.

Streaming services and broadcasters typically license content for two to five years from a production company, distributor, or other rights holder and pay quarterly instalments over the length of the licensing period. Production companies and distributors are slowly drip-fed the revenues that they’ve earned, limiting their ability to invest in making or acquiring new content. At the same time, spending and demand for content are at an all-time high, driven by soaring subscriber growth on global streaming platforms. Streaming companies spent $220 billion on content in 2020 and an estimated $250 billion more in 2021—the acquisition of independently produced content accounts for 65.5% of the total spend.

Wayne Marc Godfrey, the founder and CEO of Purely Capital, has assumed the role of general manager of Pipe’s Media & Entertainment Division and has been joined by co-founder Dan Abrams and the rest of the Purely team who will help operate the new division. Wayne is a leading expert in entertainment financing and rights acquisition as well as a prolific film producer. Purely originated the purchases of over 250 titles from its customers, representing over $45 million in revenues. As part of Pipe, Wayne and his team can now further accelerate the business by connecting producers directly with Pipe’s institutional investors on the platform, with the capacity to now fund billions of dollars in revenues.

“Pipe has built the capital markets engine to connect recurring revenue-generating assets to institutional investors seeking yield,” said Harry Hurst, co-founder, and co-CEO, Pipe. “We are excited to announce the acquisition of one of the leading originators of these assets, Purely Capital. We met Wayne and his team a little over a year ago and have watched the incredible job they have done scaling their business with limited resources. Now, operating under the Pipe platform, we’re confident we’ll be able to continue to tap into this $250 billion/year market and provide a host of financing solutions and a truly category-defining service for the creatives and rights owners that make up this exciting market.”

With the acquisition of Purely, Pipe’s institutional investors will bid on producers’ long-dated revenue streams, providing up-front capital, and will be paid back over the course of the license period. This lets producers bridge funding gaps and deliver vital and immediate cash flow to creatives and rights holders. Content producers and distributors now no longer need to liaise with the accounts departments of major global businesses or wait years for the funds to kick start their next production or acquisition.

“I am honoured to be joining the Pipe team to empower media and entertainment companies to seize control of their long-dated revenues, accelerate the growth of their business, and stretch the boundaries of their creativity,” said Godfrey. “I’ve been passionate about finding new ways to help creators with their entertainment financing needs and long believed that the access to financing needed an overhaul in order to turbo-charge creators. Technology is the best solution for this. It drives nearly every other aspect of the entertainment industry, from how content is produced, to how it is distributed and consumed, and it only makes sense to bring finance into the digital age through the incredible platform that Pipe has built.”