Popular YouTube group Dude Perfect, which first rose to popularity for its basketball trick shots, has secured a significant nine-figure investment, in the range of $100 million to $300 million, from private investment firm Highmount Capital. The investment will support Dude Perfect's exploration of new strategic opportunities and expansion beyond the creator economy.
"We're really excited to try to unlock some of the vision and stuff that we were afraid would only be dreams up to this point," says Coby Cotton, a co-founder at Dude Perfect. "We're really just looking to scale a lot of the things that up until now, we've just never even had anywhere close to the capability to do."
Dude Perfect has five members – Coby Cotton, Cory Cotton, Tyler Toney, Garret Hilbert and Cody Jones. They met at Texas A&M University and launched their YouTube channel in 2009. The videos went viral, leading to television appearances, brand deals with major advertisers, and live tours.
The Dude Perfect YouTube channel has over 60 million subscribers with over 17 billion views. It's the 35th most-subscribed channel, according to data from Social Blade.
Dude Perfect is more than just a YouTube channel. With a team of 25 employees based in their headquarters in Frisco, Texas, they have secured various brand partnerships, including their own smoothie at Smoothie King, a line of Nerf products, and even their own board game.
"Whether it's toys, or food and beverage or whatever, it's really just letting families bond with you and with each other," said Highmount Capital co-founder Jason Illian. "They built such a tremendous business now that we want to run in parallel with those and let those grow even faster."
The investment is in a long-term hold structure. Highmount Capital plans to be a long-term financial partner with Dude Perfect and sees the group expand outside of posting online.
The team's future has been dubbed "Dude Perfect 2.0" and consists of plans to open a retail store, to launch a streaming platform, introduce a line of toys and games in Walmart, and even envisions a $100 million theme park.
"It will be continued watching, but also give families, in particular, a chance to touch and feel what they've come to love from Dude Perfect," said Cotton.
The Dude Perfect team has become adept at family-friendly entertainment, which has been key in attracting more advertisers on YouTube.
"The next generation is not coming in and flipping on cable TV," said Illian. "They're pulling in their phones, and they're subscribing, they're following. And these are the people they're listening to."