Angel Studios, the streaming platform behind “The Chosen,” raises $5M in just one week to grow its family-friendly app

Angel Studios, the streaming platform behind the most successful faith-based crowdfunded shows of all time, announced it has met its $5 million funding goal in just one week as it aims to build up its streaming app.

The record fundraising, which was met on March 24, came three months after the company raised $47 million in January to bring control of the entertainment industry back to consumers and creators. Angel Studios has produced several hugely successful family-friendly shows including The Chosen, Dry Bar Comedy, and The Wingfeather Saga.

The funding caps off a major comeback for co-founders Neal and Jeffrey Harmon, who led Angel Studios to over $100 million in annual revenue just one year after Disney and Warner Bros. tried to shut the studio down in court.

In 2017, VidAngel, a streaming service similar to Netflix co-founded by Harmon with his brother Jeffery, filed for bankruptcy. VidAngel provided a filtering service that helps families cut out negative language, sex, and violence from movies and shows.

What sets Angel Studios apart from others is that it empowers its audience to decide what content gets produced and distributed, while creating communities around each project.

Here is how Angel Studios works: creators submit project ideas on the Angel platform, and “Angel investors” fund the ones they’re most interested in seeing. Its audience decides what content gets produced and distributed while creating communities around each project. After it’s produced, content is delivered directly to viewers and grows in popularity as fans share it with others.

Stephen Oskoui, Managing Partner of Gigafund explains: “Angel Studios helps creators build a direct relationship with their fans and produce meaningful and compelling content for hundreds of millions of people who have been underserved by the entertainment industry.”

Meanwhile, The Chosen, the first-ever multi-season TV show about the life of Jesus, was one of the company’s first projects which earned hundreds of millions of views around the world.

In a statement, Neal Harmon, co-founder of Angel Studios said: “People get to participate in culture. They get to have an impact on culture and it’s not just a bunch of Hollywood executives that make these decisions. It is the smartest executives of all time — it’s the audience.”

Founded by Neal and Jeffrey Harmon, Angel Studios’ crowdfunded studio platform serves audiences that have been overlooked by Hollywood and other media conglomerates. At Angel Studios, “Angel” investors choose which titles will be created, funded, and distributed.