Whetstone Media Pre-seed Funding Announcement
Whetstone Media – a Black-owned multiplatform company – raises $1.3 million to advance Black, Indigenous and female voices in the food industry
The company is led by Stephen Satterfield, the host of Netflix’s High on the Hog
Whetstone Media, a Black-owned media company dedicated to food origins and culture, closed a $1.3 million pre-seed round of funding. Whetstone Media’s CEO Stephen Satterfield shares, “This investment will allow Whetstone to continue and expand our work in fostering the narrative correction in food media we’ve long called for.” Satterfield, a longtime food justice advocate, was recently the host of Netflix’s “High on the Hog”.
This funding round—the company’s first—is led by Supply Change Capital, with participation from Participant, Guy Raz of NPR’s “How I Built This,” who also serves as advisor, and Portfolia’s Rising America fund.
Since debuting in 2017, Whetstone has published in nearly 100 countries with an emphasis on narrative equity in race, gender and geography. The Whetstone Media platform is dedicated to the story of food, with divisions including publishing, a global podcasting network, e-commerce, and a creative studio producing content for streaming giants. The recently launched Climate Cuisine podcast debuted as Top 10 on all streaming platforms, including Apple and Spotify, within 3 weeks of launch.
Capital will be used for the continued growth of Whetstone Radio Collective, the newly launched international food podcast network. It also furthers the organization’s existing editorial work in print and digital food publishing.
With the historical benefit of capital and distribution, food media has been used as a means to reinforce and perpetuate social hierarchies and cultural erasure. This funding provides the necessary resources for narrative equity, correction and redirection. Our lead investors at Supply Change Capital, the venture capital firm run by co-founders and managing partners Noramay Cadena and Shayna Harris, share,
“Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian American voices have been missing from the mainstream media landscape for too long. We believe that a Black-owned food media company that amplifies female and POC voices has tremendous potential to grow among diverse audiences – who are the majority of our population – and is truly pioneering.”
Alongside Supply Change Capital, strategic investment comes from Participant, an industry-leading media company with social impact at its core. Whetstone looks forward to taking advantage of their category-leading expertise in impact media across film and episodic as we move our stories across mediums into the world.
ABOUT WHETSTONE MEDIA
Founded by Stephen Satterfield, Whetstone is a multimedia company producing both original and commissioned content that tells the story of food as a means to expand human empathy and understanding. The company publishes Whetstone Magazine and produces Whetstone Radio Collective, a network of food podcasts dedicated to producing shows that tell origin stories from food cultures around the world.
ABOUT STEPHEN SATTERFIELD
Whetstone founder and CEO Stephen Satterfield has devoted the last 15 years of his career redefining food and beverage as means of organizing, activating and educating. Prior to his career in media, Satterfield was a sommelier and social entrepreneur promoting wine as a catalyst for socioeconomic development for Black wine workers in South Africa. Satterfield, “among the most prominent and respected voices in U.S. food media” according to Vox Media’s Eater, is host of the critically acclaimed Netflix docuseries High on the Hog.
Press inquiries: emily@whetstonemagazine.com
Speaking inquiries: crista.spadafore@caa.com
Ad sale inquiries: advertising@gumball.fm
