A trio of execs from Google, YouTube and the BBC have joined forces to launch Hera, a podcast company that will serve what they say is “the most underserved audience in media history: women.”
With podcasting dominated by men, Hera is being billed as the UK’s first video podcast network to focus on stories through a female lens. Its founders – Nishma Patel Robb, Rosie Allimonos and Kirsty Hunter – claim 80% of the top 10 podcasts on the UK Spotify Charts being hosted solely by men.
Hera will seek to champion and support women through every stage of the creative and commercial process. The founders say the mission is to “close the gender gap in podcasting and give women’s voices the scale and financial reward they deserve.” This means producing original shows, brokering partnerships with brands and building “cutting-edge tech.”
Allimonos has for the past four five years been Managing Director of tech skills biz Agility Sessions, and was in the pas Global Director of Partnerships for Digital Investment for BBC Studios, Head of Creative Partnerships EMA for Meta, Head of Strategic Partnerships for YouTube EMEA and Head of YouTube Originals in the same region. Further back, she was a production investment lead for the BBC, working on TV commissioning and digital brand extensions of its top shows, and worked at All3Media and as an exec producer for the ABC in Australia.
Patel Robb is the founder of personal brand business Glittersphere and a former Senior Brand Director, Brand and Reputation Marketing at Google. She sits on the CMO advisory board at Spotify and is President of the History in Advertising Trust, and has led businesses such as Teletext Holidays.
Hunter is the founder and Managing Director of production house StoryHunter, which had a development deal with NBCUniversal International Studios. She was exec producer on BBC series Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley and Audible series Climate of Change, which featured Cate Blanchett and Danny Kennedy. Further back, she was Group Head of Social Media Content & Production at Fremantle, and was acting Managing Director of the super-indie’s digital production house Shotglass Media. She was also Head of International Creative Development – Digital at Sony Pictures Television, Managing Director of The Project Factory, Head of Interactive at Lion Television, a producer for Ninemsn and a producer at the ABC.
At launch, the trio has closed an initial seed round of funding in the UK under the SEIS scheme, and have now opened up a further EIS second seed stage.
They claim that with women are expected to control 75% of discretionary spending by 2030, per NielsenIQ research, there is a significant cultural and financial opportunity to create a platform for advertisers to connect with women at scale.
Hera’s mission of change will include it developing “cutting-edge proprietary AI tools” to support creators, streamline workflows and create new audience experiences.
In addition, A Hera Club has opened for membership to women and non-binary people hosting or planning their own podcasts.
Patel Robb said: “One billion people globally are watching podcasts on YouTube every month, the podcast industry generated $7.3B in sales last year, and even Taylor Swift is using video podcasts to continue her streak of album announcements. Podcasts aren’t just entertainment, they’re trusted outlets where listeners go to find new information, but when you look at the charts, this is a sector dominated by men. It’s time for change.
“Audiences are hungry for authentic voices, while brands seek better ways to reach women. HERA is the platform to give voice to female creators, leaders and storytellers to ensure the world sees, hears and pays them.”
Hunter added: “Hera is the destination for brands who want safe, scalable, premium content that unlocks new audiences–and when you create content through a female lens, the audience listens in their millions, like they have with Lady Killers. We’re not waiting for permission to create this content anymore; we’re developing, producing and publishing it ourselves. Our team is already building an original slate of shows with major talent, which is just the beginning of a new era of media.”
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