Letterboxd, the global social platform that’s become a key tool for independent film discovery, promotion and conversation in the current challenging market for movies, is being acquired by Canadian technology holding company, Tiny, which is taking a majority stake.
Letterboxd’s founders will continue to lead the business independently while leveraging their partnership with Tiny to accelerate the platform’s growth as it continues to scale.
Founded in 2011 by film fans and Aukland, New Zealand-based tech executives Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow, Letterboxd has experienced significant growth over the past five years, recently surpassing 10 million members across 200+ countries – up from 4.1 million members in 2021 and 1.8 million in 2020. Buchanan told Deadline in an interview last year that the company has been profitable since 2019, in part by capturing the attention of younger audiences aged 18 to 24 looking to connect online around shared interests. Members track what they watch, share reviews and lists, log and rate movies, and follow others on the platform. Letterboxd has been teaming up with indie distributors for film launches starting Neon and Parasite. It formed partnerships this year with Netflix and The Academy, and has expanded into editorial and audio.
“Teaming up with Tiny represents a big leap forward for us,” said Buchanan and Randow. “Tiny’s impressive track record, which includes spurring the growth of the thriving design community, Dribbble, speaks to their ability to cultivate and grow businesses like ours without altering the fundamental components that have made them successful. We see this as a huge win for our community, enabling us to cement Letterboxd’s future with additional resources without sacrificing the DNA of what makes it special.”
Dribbble is a social network for designers and digital creatives.
“We’ve been huge fans and users of Letterboxd for a long time and could not be more excited to join forces with Matthew, Karl, and the rest of the team for the long-term,” said Tiny co-founder Andrew Wilkinson.
“Our aim is to make Letterboxd the ultimate destination for anyone looking to discover or discuss movies online. If you’re running out of things to watch, it’s because you haven’t used Letterboxd yet—and we believe that the potential for superior discovery is a large opportunity.”
