TORONTO and LONDON — Julie Bristow, the former CEO and president of factual and kids content maker Bristow Global Media, has launched the Content Catalyst Fund (CCF), a development and funding company focusing on content developed, delivered and designed by women and about women.
Based in Canada but with an international reach, the CCF will develop and invest in unscripted and scripted content, but with an initial focus on unscripted, says a press release on Tuesday. To help female creators find an audience for their work, the CCF will invest in end-to-end strategic support in viable female-led projects, says the release.
“There are no end of amazing female creators out there — and no end of audiences hungry for stories told through the female lens,” said Bristow (above), in the release. “The problem is women working in the content industry do not enjoy the same access to influence and capital, despite market data proving conclusively that female-driven content is profitable. The CCF intends to change that. We believe there has never been a better time to rethink and redesign the way women make content for women. At CCF, content will always be queen.”
In 2013, Bristow launched Bristow Global Media (BGM) to create, package and produce multi-genre, multiplatform content for the international marketplace. Under her leadership, BGM developed an international reputation for premium factual content and grew into a global entertainment company. In 2017, Kew Media Group acquired BGM, which was subsequently bought by Quebec-based Datsit Sphere in late 2019 (the acquisition was finalized in March 2020 after Kew entered bankruptcy protection).
Prior to founding BGM, Bristow was the executive director of studio and unscripted content at CBC, where she helped to create and monetize many of the public broadcaster’s most successful programs, including Dragons’ Den. Her international credits as a global executive producer include 100 Days to Victory (Foxtel, BBC Scotland, History), 9/11: Control the Skies (National Geographic International, Bell Media) and Canada: The Story of Us (CBC).
Bristow has brought in long-time colleague and collaborator Mona Minhas as CCF’s chief financial officer. Minhas has extensive media and entertainment industry experience, specifically in finance, strategy, and mergers and acquisitions, and is the former vice-president of finance for Rogers Communications, where she oversaw the financial management of the company’s media division. For the past few years, Minhas has provided financial and business strategy support to several high-growth technology, e-commerce and media ventures.
CCF has been seeded by Bristow and a small group of like-minded investors, says the release.
“In the first instance, the fund will invest in a robust pipeline of original IP from female creators, while helping to finance the development of promising projects. The longer-term objective is to seek out projects with the potential for equity investment,” reads the press release.
