SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Epic Gardening, the online gardening destination founded by Kevin Espiritu announced today an investment of $17.5 million by The Chernin Group (TCG) to finance its continued growth and expansion.
Founded in 2013, Epic Gardening is a trusted resource for millions of enthusiast and aspiring gardeners who want to grow their own food and learn creative gardening techniques. Originally started as a hobby for Espiritu, Epic Gardening has grown into a robust content platform for the gardening curious and enthusiast with over 3M social followers, 10M lifetime podcast downloads and 10M blog visits in 2021. Espiritu’s first book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening that teaches readers how to grow food no matter where they live, has sold over 30,000 copies.
“The mission of Epic Gardening is simple, but ambitious: teach the world to grow,” said Kevin Espiritu. “Cultivating plants has been a core part of human life for thousands of years, but info on how to learn the skill set is sorely outdated and inaccessible. My aim with Epic Gardening has always been to ‘learn in public’, and showcase my growing journey on modern platforms, directly to my audience. This investment from TCG will help accelerate that mission dramatically.”
Espiritu is building a network of enthusiastic, relatable, and experienced gardeners to add different growing perspectives and expertise on the Epic Gardening platform. His gardening assistant turned content creator, Jacques Lyakov, amassed a sizable following within a few months, and Chris Chung of Vancouver-based Fluent Garden will produce content to add to Epic’s cold-climate gardening offering.
“From a consumer point of view, learning how to garden with Kevin and team as your companions is an incredibly rich and rewarding experience,” says Luke Beatty, partner at TCG. “Community and authentic engagement are Epic Gardening’s lifeblood, similar to other disruptive brands in the TCG portfolio including MeatEater, Food52 and Surfline. Tens of millions of consumers identify as gardeners and our belief is that they will increasingly turn from big box stores to content-led digital brands.”
In 2019, Epic Gardening launched its online store to offer highly-curated, best-in-class gardening products designed to perform well for the gardener and stand the test of time. Every product is hand-selected after detailed testing, research, and multiple seasons of “in-the-garden” growing experience. The store currently offers durable metal raised garden beds from Birdies Garden Products, innovative long-lasting seed starting trays, at-home composting solutions and more.
Espiritu added, “There’s a massive opportunity to provide world-class gardening education and best-in-class quality gardening products directly to the Epic Gardening community. I’m beyond excited to partner with TCG to help fulfill this mission, as their track record is unparalleled in the content to commerce space. I’ve been consistently impressed not only by their work ethic, but also by their expertise and counsel on growing a creator-led brand like Epic Gardening.”
The investment will be used to bolster Epic’s operations, commerce, and content teams and aggressively scale its offering of gardening products and content. Recent key hires include Linus Walton as Chief Operating Officer and Ty Bostain as Director of Commerce, bringing extensive experience scaling consumer brands.
About Epic Gardening
Epic Gardening is a leading online gardening media company, where millions of enthusiastic gardeners come for entertaining and informative growing information across its blog, podcast, social platforms, and traditionally published books. Through its online store, launched in 2019, Epic Gardening offers highly-curated, best-in-class gardening products designed to perform well for the gardener and stand the test of time. www.epicgardening.com
About TCG
Founded by Peter Chernin, Jesse Jacobs, and Mike Kerns, TCG is an investment firm dedicated to building consumer businesses. The TCG team has a track record of working with world-class consumer brands in content, commerce, and consumer-tech, including Food52, Headspace, MeatEater, The Pro’s Closet, Everlywell, Surfline and Lovevery. tcg.co
