Ideas United, LLC, a creative studio changing the way stories are told, announced that Kayne Partners, the growth equity group of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., has committed $15 million in equity funding to support Ideas United’s growth and expansion leveraging its model to produce authentic, high-quality content and events for premier brands, universities, nonprofits, and networks.

“After more than a decade of profitably building Ideas United, we’re thrilled to now benefit from the support of Kayne Partners to take advantage of the exceptional growth opportunities in front of us,” said David Roemer, Co-Founder and CEO of Ideas United. “Brands and original content platforms are now seeking new models to tell unforgettable stories, and we’ve developed an ideal solution to make an unforgettable impact.”

Ideas United began over 15 years ago with the creation of Campus Movie Fest, a leading student film festival with more than a million students who’ve created short movies for free thanks to premier brand partners. Ideas United provides its partners with multiple months of deep engagement on more than 60 college campuses each year, resulting in industry-leading experiential opportunities and college access as well as special culminating events with industry luminaries.

Campus Movie Fest additionally serves as a talent discovery model for Ideas United year after year, enabling Ideas United to find and nurture top emerging storytellers who are invited into its exclusive community of creative, authentic, diverse, and talented creators located around the globe. Ideas United leverages this community to bring to life the stories of its clients – which have included over 30 Fortune 500 brands and 150 universities – and manages all productions from start to finish.

Ideas United’s full-time team provides the expertise, consistency, and highest level quality that clients demand for a wide variety of services – ranging from capturing content in dozens of countries in one day to serving as a marketing agency of record for premier brands to developing campaigns for leading institutions to fundraise billions of dollars.

Most recently, Ideas United expanded its infrastructure to develop original content, including five television pilots based on the top concepts submitted from nearly 1,000 of its top emerging creators worldwide. Now, Ideas United is in development on multiple feature films and series as streaming platforms and brands demand more high-quality content than ever before.

“With the support of Kayne Partners, we can rapidly scale to efficiently deliver content globally that’s unmatched by traditional models,” stated Dan Costa, Co-Founder and President of Ideas United. “We’re excited to build depth in our sales and marketing team to help showcase our solutions to potential partners worldwide while we continue to shape our creative and production team, discover the best of
the next generation, and produce inspiring content and experiences.”

“We are excited to be partnering with the Ideas United team as we believe that their unique content production model has the potential to dramatically shift how brands approach storytelling and connecting with their audiences. This is a team that is not constrained by industry standards and takes a novel approach to content that we believe is unique in the marketplace. We look forward to working with the Ideas United team as they continue to innovate in their next phase of growth,” added Rob Shilton, Vice President at Kayne Partners.