Intrigue Media raises US$1.75 million investment round



We’re delighted to announce we’ve raised a $1.75 million investment round, led by Autumn Road Capital.

At Intrigue Media, we’re relentlessly focused on helping global leaders and curious global citizens understand what’s going on in the world, and why it matters for them.

Our flagship product is ‘International Intrigue’, a daily newsletter that explains the biggest global news stories and why they matter. We do this in an insightful and engaging way, and in just five minutes or less. 

In parallel, our popular ‘Intrigue Outloud’ podcast does the same job but for folks who prefer to listen on the go, adding deep-dive interviews with political leaders and experts from around the world. And we’ll be bringing an exciting new video product to our slate shortly.

Meanwhile, our ‘Intriga Internacional’ newsletter is also expanding our offering to the world’s 500 million Spanish speakers. 

What makes the Intrigue brand different?

We’re founded and run by former diplomats, whose experienced sensibilities animate and power the DNA of Intrigue’s flagship product and other offerings. 

Reflecting on their time as foreign service officers stationed around the globe, and their experience at elite education institutions in the UK and US, co-founders John Fowler and Helen Zhang arrived at a simple but profound conclusion: leaders need a timely and fresh information source to navigate an increasingly complex and fragmented world – a world quite different than the one they learned about in grad school.

John and Helen saw a market opportunity for a next-gen media brand that packages global expertise for the non-expert in a way that engages, entertains, and informs.

If Morning Brew and The Economist had a newsletter baby, it’d be ‘International Intrigue’: combining the rising professional demo play of ‘Morning Brew’ with the global coverage and depth of The Economist. 

How we do it

We’re diplomats, not journalists. We’ve been in the room. We speak five languages. We’ve briefed world leaders. That means we bring a unique perspective and actionable insights that folks can’t get anywhere else.

Each day, our team of former diplomats covers the most consequential global developments, distils the key takeaways, and adds our proprietary analysis about what’s coming next. It’s actionable intelligence for those in business and government, served up in a style that’s purposefully engaging and entertaining so our audience actually enjoys getting smarter about their world. (That’s why International Intrigue has a sky-high open-rate!).

Our brand is tailor-made to expand our reach with subscribers, advertisers, sponsors, and partners, at a time when the focus on international developments – from unprecedented wars and economic transformations, through to the energy transition and historic technological breakthroughs – has never been more intense.

Our $1.75 million investment round empowers us to turbocharge Intrigue’s growth into the next phase.  

Recent Collaborations

  • The Economist
  • Millenium Space Systems, a Boeing Company
  • HubSpot
  • Morning Brew
  • Atlantic Council
  • Australian Financial Review

Company Name: Intrigue Media

Year founded: 2022

Location: Washington DC, London, Sydney, Austin

Number of employees:

Valuation: $5.5M

Raise round: $1.75M, led by Autumn Road Capital

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