St. Louis-based digital media firm Quillt, which operates a portfolio of online publications, has been purchased by an investment firm led by a former CEO of ride sharing company Uber.
Mill Valley, California-based investment firm Saltwater Capital LLC has acquired a majority stake of Quillt (formerly Gateway Blend) from St. Louis investor Tom Hillman. Members of Quillt’s management team will retain their ownership positions, the company said. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
For Quillt, the deal comes after its management team in recent years has turned around the company, paying off $40 million in debt and retooling its portfolio to place a focus on providing content for audiences in the 50-plus age demographic. CEO Kasey Grelle said Saltwater Capital’s purchase will provide the St. Louis digital media firm the opportunity to expand its operations by scaling its current brands and adding new ones.
“The expansion strategy looks like building on the foundation that we have, bringing in some of the resources, help and connections that the Saltwater team has to take those brands to the next level, to add in new revenue models and business units to those brands. But then also looking at strategic acquisitions that we can tuck in to grow those brands inorganically and really grow and expand,” Grelle said.
Saltwater Capital is an investment holding company founded by CEO Ryan Graves, a former executive at Uber. Graves was Uber's first hired employee, according to Forbes, and served as its CEO in 2010 and later was its senior vice president of operations until 2017. His investment firm, Saltwater, has a portfolio that includes 28 companies.
“We’re very excited to have found an amazing platform company that helps build Saltwater in the content-to-commerce media space,” Graves said in a statement. “Quillt’s leadership team embodies many of the values we hold dear. They are honorable, clear and direct communicators, they are extremely data-driven and they value the impact of technology in the scaling of a business. They embody that classic Midwest hustle, frugality and groundedness that we’ve grown to admire.”
Quillt, which was spun out of Answers Corp. in 2014, operates three different brands, including:
- Seniors Matter, which publishes content focused on senior caregiving;
- Travel Awaits, a travel site targeting the 50-plus audience;
- Suggest, a lifestyle and entertainment website
Under Grelle’s leadership, Quillt has sought to implement a strategy targeting specific audiences rather than just page views. That has included finding a niche with publications and content that resonates with readers who are 50 years and older, an audience that Grelle says has been “underserved.” As part of its shift in strategy, Quillt in October 2020 sold its popular entertainment site CinemaBlend to United Kingdom-based media company Future plc.
With its acquisition, Grelle said Quillt plans to expand upon its current strategy by bolstering its existing brands and explore M&A deals. She said acquisitions could involve buying other publications, e-commerce platforms, technology providers or marketing services firms.
“We’re looking at using what we have now at Quillt as the platform and we’ve got a lot of good services in house, but we may see opportunities to bring in other pieces to that business model by doing acquisitions,” Grelle said.
In the future, Grelle said Quillt could also consider launching its own new brands.
Quillt, which has 70 employees, has offices in St. Louis and Kansas City. Locally, it recently relocated its operations from Clayton to Maplewood.
