All Def Digital Secures $5 Million Series A

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All Def Digital, a digital media company co-founded by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, has raised $5 million in a Series A round.

Greycroft Partners led the investment with participation from Advancit Capital, e.ventures and Nu Horizons Investments, a joint fund created by Simmons and ex-wife Kimora Lee Simmons-Leissner. Greycroft’s Mark Terbeek will join the company’s board.

The raise will go toward accelerating All Def Digital’s cross-platform growth, expanding its multichannel networks and developing artists and talents for its original programming.

All Def Digital launched last year as a collaboration between Simmons’ Rush Digital Media and AwesomenessTV, a DreamWorks Animation subsidiary. The Culver City company hired Sanjay Sharma, Machinima’s former executive vice president of strategy and business development, to be its first president and chief operating officer last month.

“Mark Terbeek and Greycroft were the first to see the disruption of traditional media models caused by the collision of online video and the social Web,” Sharma said in a statement.

Greycroft, which typically invests in media tech companies, has taken an interest in the local MCN business. The New York venture firm, which closed a $200 million growth fund in June, previously invested in Culver City multichannel network Maker Studios and MCN monetization managing platform Epoxy.

Staff reporter Melissah Yang can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @MelissahYang for the latest in L.A. tech news.