INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Its success was a testament to the enduring popularity of a good mystery.Mining that same well of a demand for whodunnits, a roughly
one-year-old Los Angeles-based startup called Solve has raised $20 million in financing to update the genre for a new generation of media
consumers.Its eponymously titled social media programming, available on Instagram and Snap, has managed to nab roughly 30 million
interactions over the year-and-a-half that it distributed its productions
Now the company is launching a true crime podcast on the iHeartMedia and Apple platforms to tap into another potentially high-growth
market.Solve began as a series developed within the mobile-focused entertainment studio, Vertical Networks
Helmed by Tom Wright and financed by Elisabeth Murdoch (through her Freelands Ventures fund, which Wright also managed) and Snap, the
company was one of the early entrants to raise cash as a production studio for mobile content
But it was far from the only studio to see money in mobile-first entertainment
All of the major internet-age media companies had their own mobile strategies.Murdoch eventually replaced Wright (so that he could work on
spinning up Solve as an independent entity) and sold Vertical Networks two months ago to the online media startup, Whistle, for an
shows across media, including podcasts like Serial and Dirty John, TV shows like Making a Murderer and Law - Order, and movies like The
a small part of the initial series, says Wright, with plans to expand the interactive elements going forward.Produced in partnership with
other evidence to try to guess the killer.For now, Solve is content to be a studio producing ad-supported media for platforms like Apple,
Snap, Facebook, iHeartMedia and other distributors, according to Wright
many of the major Hollywood studios.The current pace of production means that Solve is making 18 original episodes per month
For the 40-year-old Wright, Solve represents a fourth foray into the world of startups
Upfront Ventures, in a statement
