- Companies
- Skydance Media
Skydance Media Valuation, Funding & Investors
Skydance Media is valued at $4B as of October 2022.
Skydance Media Overview
About Skydance Media
Skydance Media is an American film, television, animation and interactive entertainment studio founded by David Ellison in 2010 and based in Santa Monica, California. It develops, finances and produces feature films and series, and its credits include the Mission: Impossible, Terminator, Star Trek, Top Gun and Jack Reacher franchises, as well as streaming series such as Grace and Frankie, Jack Ryan and Foundation for platforms including Netflix, Amazon and Apple. The company also operates Skydance Animation, Skydance Interactive for video games and virtual reality, and Skydance Sports. It earns revenue from licensing and co-financing films and series with studios and streaming services. The Ellison family were its majority owners, with RedBird Capital Partners, Tencent, CJ ENM and KKR as minority investors. In August 2025 Skydance merged with Paramount Global to form Paramount Skydance Corporation.
Founded
2010
HQ
Website
Status
Privately held
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Licensing
Valuation
$4B (Oct 2022)
Sectors
Skydance Media Valuation
Skydance Media is currently valued at $4B, based on its undisclosed-stage round in October 2022. Read the announcement ↗
The $400M round was led by KKR, with participation from Tencent and RedBird Capital Partners.
Skydance Media's valuation has grown 1.7x from $2.3B at its undisclosed-stage round in February 2020 to $4B in October 2022, across 2 priced rounds.
Skydance Media valuation by funding round
| Date | Stage | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2022 | Undisclosed stage | $4B |
| Feb 2020 | Undisclosed stage | $2.3B |
Skydance Media Funding History
Skydance Media has raised a total of $675M across 2 funding rounds.
Skydance Media's first fundraising round was a $275M undisclosed-stage round in February 2020. The most recent completed round was a $400M undisclosed-stage round in October 2022.
Skydance Media funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Valuation | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2022 | Undisclosed stage | KKR (lead); Tencent; RedBird Capital Partners | $400M | $4B | Skydance Media, a Santa Monica-based film and television production company founded by David Ellison, completed a $400 million strategic investment round on October 13, 2022, led by KKR with participation from the Ellison family (majority shareholders), RedBird Capital Partners, and Tencent. The round explicitly values the company at over $4 billion, supporting expansion in sports, interactive entertainment including gaming and virtual reality, animation, and core film and TV operations. Existing investors like RedBird, which led a prior $275 million round in 2020 alongside CJ Entertainment, and Tencent continued their involvement to drive global growth. Skydance has built a reputation for commercially successful action-adventure content, including the Paramount Pictures release 'Top Gun: Maverick,' which grossed $1.45 billion at the box office. Its streaming productions feature high-viewership titles such as Netflix's 'The Adam Project' and '6 Underground,' Amazon Prime Video's 'The Tomorrow War,' and Apple's animated 'Luck.' In television, Skydance produces Netflix's longest-running series 'Grace and Frankie,' alongside 'Foundation,' 'Reacher,' 'Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,' 'Condor,' 'The Big Door Prize,' and an upcoming Arnold Schwarzenegger spy series. The investment reflects growing private equity interest in entertainment amid streaming demand and box office recovery, with firms like KKR, Apollo, RedBird, and Blackstone active in music catalogs, production companies, and studios. KKR partners highlighted Skydance's differentiated creative and entrepreneurial team, positioning it to innovate across TV, film, animation, gaming, and sports. |
| Feb 2020 | Undisclosed stage | RedBird Capital Partners (lead); Tencent; CJ ENM | $275M | $2.3B | Skydance Media announced on 11 February 2020 a $275 million strategic investment by RedBird Capital Partners and CJ Entertainment and Merchandising, the entertainment arm of South Korea's CJ Group, in a round that valued the company at $2.3 billion. Skydance's existing investors, including the Ellison family and Tencent Holdings, also participated. The company said the equity would expand its global reach across its film, television, animation and interactive platforms and strengthen its balance sheet as it grew its production slate. The partnership with CJ, whose studio produced the Oscar-winning film Parasite, was also aimed at developing content for international audiences. RedBird's founder Gerry Cardinale joined Skydance's board. Skydance Media is a Santa Monica-based studio founded by David Ellison in 2010 that produces feature films including the Mission: Impossible, Terminator and Star Trek franchises, streaming television series such as Grace and Frankie and Jack Ryan, animated features through Skydance Animation and games through Skydance Interactive. In 2019 it produced Gemini Man and Terminator: Dark Fate. RedBird remained an investor through Skydance's $400 million round in 2022 and its 2025 merger with Paramount Global. |
Who has invested in Skydance Media?
4 investors have backed Skydance Media across its funding rounds, including Tencent, RedBird Capital Partners, KKR and CJ ENM.
Lead investors include KKR and RedBird Capital Partners.
Skydance Media Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Participant | Feb 2020 | ||
| 2 | Lead | Feb 2020 | ||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all 4 Skydance Media investors. Start Free Trial | ||||
Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples
Sign up to see data on 350K+ funding rounds and disclosed revenue and EBITDA valuation multiples, from seed, through growth stage, to pre-IPO.
Start Free TrialSkydance Media Competitors
Skydance Media competitors include listed companies like Toei Animation, China Film Group, Banijay Group and Lionsgate Studios, and private ones like Luma AI and Synthesia.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private | $50M | - | $4B | - | ||
| Private | $100M | - | $4B | 40.0x | ||
| Publicly listed | $594M | $215M | $3.9B | 5.3x | ||
| Publicly listed | $726M | $70M | $4.1B | 3.5x | ||
| Publicly listed | $5.5B | $926M | $3.7B | 1.6x | ||
| Publicly listed | $2.6B | $1.1B | $3.7B | 2.4x |
Skydance Media Public Comps
Skydance Media is still privately-owned, but its public comps include Toei Animation, China Film Group, Banijay Group, Lionsgate Studios, Oriental Pearl Group, FUJI Media Holdings, Nippon Television, ITV plc, Enlight Media and HYBE.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $594M | $215M | 5.6x | 5.3x | 15.4x | 16.5x | |||
| $726M | $70M | 3.5x | 3.5x | 36.6x | 27.3x | |||
| $5.5B | $926M | 1.9x | 1.6x | 11.5x | 8.3x | |||
| $2.6B | $1.1B | 2.8x | 2.4x | 6.6x | 23.1x | |||
| $1.1B | $298M | 2.8x | 2.8x | 10.5x | 10.8x | |||
| $3.5B | $381M | 2.0x | 1.8x | 18.2x | 26.5x | |||
| $3.1B | $612M | 1.2x | 1.2x | 6.2x | 8.2x | |||
| $4.7B | $594M | 0.9x | 0.8x | 6.8x | 5.4x | |||
This data is available for Pro users. Sign up to see all Skydance Media competitors and their valuation data. Start Free Trial | ||||||||
Common questions about Skydance Media
| When was Skydance Media founded? | Skydance Media was founded in 2010. |
| Where is Skydance Media headquartered? | Skydance Media is headquartered in Santa Monica, United States. |
| Is Skydance Media publicly listed? | No, Skydance Media is a private, VC-backed company. |
| What is Skydance Media's valuation? | Skydance Media was last valued at $4B in its undisclosed-stage round in October 2022. |
| How much funding has Skydance Media raised? | Skydance Media has raised $675M across 2 funding rounds. |
| What was Skydance Media's last funding round? | Skydance Media's last funding round was a $400M undisclosed-stage round in October 2022, led by KKR. |
| Who are Skydance Media's investors? | Skydance Media's investors include Tencent, RedBird Capital Partners, KKR and CJ ENM. |
| Which companies are comparable to Skydance Media? | Companies comparable to Skydance Media include Luma AI, Synthesia, Toei Animation, China Film Group, Banijay Group and Lionsgate Studios. |
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