Podium Entertainment Acquired by Private Equity Firms

Audio-focused publisher <a href="https://podiumentertainment.com/genre/litrpg-and-gamelit?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Paid&utm_campaign=GoogleAIMaxLitRPG&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23844147009&gbraid=0AAAAABe1viePTRJbjipRfMjjugcX0HG5M&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzsjVBhC3ARIsALnMv4nUbefdtExzB_0gvYubQdsWV-6SU_f_deAD2fH3-9E4NkxGqOFVcZQaAiwQEALw_wcB” rel=”nofollow noopener” target=”_blank”>Podium Entertainmenthas been acquired by private equity firms Flexpoint Ford and Shamrock Capital from Presidio Investors. Music rights investor GoldState Music made a minority investment alongside the two lead buyers. Terms were not officially disclosed, but the Wall Street Journalreported the deal is valued at more than $400 million.

Podium began in the early 2010s as a small Toronto-based startup in Toronto, first known for producing the audiobookof Andy Weir’s self-published novel The Martian.It eventually parlayed that success into a catalog of more than 15,000 titles, with a strong emphasis on genre and self-published authors.

As part of the deal, Podium is partnering with the nonprofit Ownership Works to give all employees an ownership stake in the company. According to the news release announcing the acquisition, former Spotify executive David Kaefer will now join Podium’s board.

“We are incredibly proud of the work we’ve accomplished to date on behalf of the thousands of authors and voice actors Podium represents, and alongside the tremendous support we received from Presidio Investors since 2019, but this is just the beginning of our story,” said Scott Dickey, CEO of Podium, in the announcement.

“What streaming did for independent musicians, digital audio is doing for independent authors,” added Mike Morris, managing director at Flexpoint Ford. “Podium has built a differentiated platform around valuable IP, helping authors reach global audiences while retaining ownership of their work.”

The acquisition caps a rapid period of growth for the company, one that mirrors the boom in audiobook sales. Presidio Investors acquired Podium alongside Lawrence in March 2019; Scott Dickey became CEO that September. The company changed its name to Podium Audio and reported $50 million in revenue in 2020, with its catalog growing from roughly 1,300 titles to more than 2,000 over the course of the year. By 2024 the company had rebranded again, to Podium Entertainment, adding e-book and print publishing—distributed through the Ingram-owned Two Rivers—and expanding into romance, romantasy, and LitRPG.

A 2025 PW Studio piece put the catalog at just over 10,000 titles; the acquisition announcement’s figure of more than 15,000 marks continued growth since then.

While Podium has seen strong growth, its 15,000 titles remain well behind RBmedia, the world’s largest audiobook publisher, whose catalog surpassed 100,000 titles in 2025 and now stands at more than 110,000.

RBmedia has itself changed hands repeatedly: from Wasserstein & Co. (2014) to Shamrock Capital Advisors (2015) to KKR (2018, reportedly around $500 million) to its current owners, H.I.G. Capital and Francisco Partners, who acquired it from KKR in September 2023 for a reported $1 billion-plus, when its catalog stood at about 66,000 titles.