Alex Cooper's Unwell Takes Its First Outside Money at a $500 Million Valuation

Patrick Whitesell's Silver Lake-backed WTSL is buying in, with acquisitions as the stated plan — and no breakdown of what the podcast, the ad agency, the drinks line or the live business each contribute.

WTSL, the Silver Lake-backed firm led by Patrick Whitesell, has made a strategic investment in Unwell, the media company Alex Cooper founded with her husband, Matt Kaplan, in 2023. The Hollywood Reporter reports that the exact figure was not disclosed, but that the funding values the business at $500 million. A person familiar with the matter told the outlet this is the first outside investment Unwell has taken, and that the company has been profitable for the three years since it launched.

The stated use of the money is growth, including through acquisition — which is the part of the announcement that matters most for anyone tracking how creator businesses in Los Angeles are being assembled. Unwell is already more than a podcast. Alongside Cooper's Call Her Daddy and other shows, including Madeline Argy's Pretty Lonesome, the company spans branded merchandise and beverages, live events, and a film and TV production arm whose projects include the documentary Call Her Alex, the dating reality series Love Overboard and Let's Marry Harry, and the Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special. All of it is aimed at a Gen Z audience.

What the announcement does not break out

The obvious question — how much of a half-billion-dollar valuation rests on advertising, how much on live and merchandise, how much on the shows themselves — is not answered in the announcement. Neither the size of WTSL's check nor any revenue figure or multiple was disclosed, so the $500 million stands as a valuation attached to a private round rather than a number anchored to published financials. The profitability claim comes from an unnamed person familiar with the matter, by way of THR, not from an audited disclosure.

What is on the public record are two earlier deals of scale. Cooper struck a $125 million deal with SiriusXM covering Call Her Daddy and her podcast network, according to the same report, and Unwell has a multiyear creative and media partnership with Google that coincided with the launch of its own in-house shop, The Unwell Creative Agency. An agency inside the company is a tell about where the margin is meant to come from: selling the audience, not only programming for it.

The post-agency fit

WTSL is led by Whitesell and Jason Lublin, and its clients include Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions. Beyond capital, the firm will lend expertise and industry relationships, per the report.

“The company's growth, audience connection, and cultural relevance set it apart, and we believe Unwell is uniquely positioned to help define the present and future of media,” Whitesell said, in remarks published by The Hollywood Reporter.

Cooper framed the round around reach and trust. “Trust has become the ultimate distribution channel and seventy million women a month tune-into Unwell,” she said, adding that WTSL's backing positions the company “to accelerate our media platform's growth through acquisitions and investments.” The monthly audience figure is hers, and is not independently established in the announcement.

The company has also drawn scrutiny recently: Bloomberg and Vanity Fair have both reported claims about staff turnover and uneasiness among Unwell staff, per THR. That sits alongside the valuation rather than against it, but it is the kind of thing an acquisition strategy tends to test. The next verifiable signal will be what Unwell buys, and what it pays.