GeekChicDaily raises $1.5 million from Legendary Pictures, Joe Roth, others

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GeekChicDaily, an e-mail newsletter devoted to comics, video games, technology and genre films, has raised $1.5 million in financing from several well-known Hollywood names including producer Joe Roth and Legendary Pictures.

The company plans to use the funds to launch a marketing campaign, expand ad sales staff and increase video production and mobile applications.

One-year-old GeekChic has about 150,000 subscribers who receive an ad-supported e-mail every morning on topics such as ‘The Green Hornet’ and top comic book picks of the week.

Chief Executive Peter Levin said he is also looking at creating regional editions of the newsletter.

‘There’s a big desire from our readership to better understand what events are happening locally but still get national content,’ he said. Such a move would also position GeekChic to gain new advertisers aiming for a geographically targeted consumer base.

Along with Roth, the former chairman of Walt Disney Studios, and film finance and production company Legendary, those providing GeekChic’s second round of funding include Allen DeBevoise, CEO of video games animation distributor Machinima.com, and Clear Channel head of media Robert Pittman, who co-founded the online newsletters DailyCandy and Thrillist. [Update, 9:08 a.m.: Kathy Vrabeck, who is exiting her post as president of digital for Legendary Pictures, is also investing in GeekChic and will represent Legendary on its board of directors.]

GeekChic previously raised about $1 million when it launched last year in an investment round that included Mandalay Entertainment CEO and former Sony Pictures Chairman Peter Guber.

-- Ben Fritz

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