WTSL, the investment firm led by former Endeavor executive Patrick Whitesell and Jason Lublin, has made a strategic investment in Unwell, the media company co-founded by “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper and Matt Kaplan, at a $500 million pre-money valuation, Axios reported. The amount invested was not disclosed. The deal marks the first outside investment Unwell has taken since Cooper and Kaplan launched the company in 2023.

“Trust has become the ultimate distribution channel and seventy million women a month tune into Unwell,” Cooper said in a statement. “We’re scaling on all fronts, combining nimbleness, social-first premium content, and our understanding of culture to serve this highly influential audience. With WTSL’s backing, the company is now also poised to accelerate our media platform’s growth through acquisitions and investments.”

Whitesell said Cooper, Kaplan and their team have “demonstrated an exceptional ability to anticipate where audiences are headed and create entertainment experiences that resonate deeply,” adding that Unwell is “uniquely positioned to help define the present and future of media.”

WTSL, founded in 2024 with backing from Silver Lake, focuses on media, entertainment and sports. Its portfolio includes Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions along with Diamond Baseball Holdings, InterPositive, TMWR Sports and League One Volleyball.

Cooper said the WTSL investment will help Unwell accelerate growth through acquisitions and further investments.

Unwell combines Cooper’s creator platform with the Hollywood production infrastructure Kaplan built through ACE Entertainment, whose credits include Netflix’s “To All the Boys” franchise and its spinoff series “XO, Kitty.” The company’s podcast network now hosts more than a dozen shows, including Madeline Argy’s “Pretty Lonesome,” and partners with SiriusXM under a deal for “Call Her Daddy” and the wider network reported at $125 million. Unwell also runs a creative agency, sells consumer products including hydration and energy drinks, and produces film and television projects.

The investment arrives as Unwell faces scrutiny over its workplace culture. A June Vanity Fair investigation, drawing on interviews with more than 40 current and former employees, detailed allegations of a toxic work environment and volatile behavior by Kaplan. Cooper has disputed the allegations, telling The Wall Street Journal that “being a woman in this industry is extremely difficult because you’re held to a completely different standard.”

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