Popular YouTube group Dude Perfect, who first became known for their basketball tricks, has secured a major 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 realize some of the vision and things that up until now we feared were just dreams,” says Coby Cotton, co-founder of Dude Perfect. “We’re just looking to expand a lot of things that up until now we’ve never had the capacity 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 and over 17 billion views. It is the 35th most subscribed channel, according to Social Blade data.
Dude Perfect is more than just a YouTube channel. With a team of 25 employees based at their headquarters in Frisco, Texas, they have entered into 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 drinks or whatever, it’s just about allowing families to connect with each other and with each other,” said Jason Illian, co-founder of Highmount Capital. “They’ve built such a great business now that we want to run parallel with them and let them grow even faster.”
The investment is in a long-term holding structure. Highmount Capital plans to be a long-term financial partner with Dude Perfect and sees the group expanding beyond online publishing.
The team’s future has been dubbed “Dude Perfect 2.0” and consists of plans to open a retail store, launch a streaming platform, introduce a line of toys and games at Walmart and is even considering a $100 million theme park.
“Viewing will continue, but it will also give families, in particular, a chance to touch and feel what they love about Dude Perfect,” Cotton said.
The Dude Perfect team has become adept at family entertainment, which has played a key role in attracting more advertisers to YouTube.
“The next generation is not going to come and go to cable TV,” Illian said. “They plug in their phone, they subscribe, they follow. And those are the people they listen to.”
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