Amaze Pays $650k for The Food Channel // Doubles Down on Culinary Creators
November 21, 2025 by Chris Erwin
RockWater Roundup
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Today we discuss Amaze Holding’s $650K acquisition of The Food Channel, an online food and recipe platform for foodies. We analyze deal details, strategic rationale, valuation multiples, reverse mergers, public company benefits, and a next gen social commerce and entertainment platform.
Let’s break it down…
–SELLER: The Food Channel–
Overview
- Digital publisher of food and recipe content for foodies
- Known for recipe content, food-culture journalism, culinary inspiration, and a loyal food-enthusiast readership amongst US foodies
- Founded in 1989 by CEO Bob Noble
- Based in Missouri, US
- 7 Associated Members on LI
Founding Story
- Originated as a print food magazine in 1989, later switching to digital publication in 1996
- From 1996-2010, evolved into a content-driven platform for food lovers and creators
- In 2010, released FoodChannelPRO, a professional foodservice network for manufacturers, operators, and consumers
Company Highlights
NOTE: some data may be dated, due to limited public info
- Content includes original articles, infographics, videos, recipes and photography
- 15+ in house shows hosted by food creators including “Cook Like A. Champion” and “Eat Travel Rock”
- Known contributors include Chef Ace Champion, Carolyn Scott Hamilton, and Kelly Rizzo
- YouTube: 20K+ subscribers and 5.8M+ total views
- Twitter / Facebook: 86K followers
- Joined the USA Today Network in July 2017, leveraging an expanded team with an occasional “trend based editorial focus” and access to their display media network
- Average monthly website visitors: 120k
Business Lines / Model
- Advertising and sponsorships…
- Offers display ads, sponsored/native content, and branded product integration across the site
Capital Markets History
- Nov ‘25 Acquired by Amaze Holdings for $650k
–BUYER: Amaze Holdings–
Overview
- Social commerce platform where creators can design, launch, and sell products across storefronts
- Monetizes storefronts through e-commerce and merchandising capabilities
- Based in Newport Beach, California
- Publicly traded on NYSE: AMZE
- Founded by Aaron Day
- 12 Associated Members on LI
Founding Story
- Started in June 2011 as Benchrank, Inc., a mobile-first advertising agency
- Rebranded to Famous Industries, Inc. in November 2011, investing over $65M over the next decade to build a social commerce platform
- Aaron Day joined as CEO in September 2021 and rebranded to Amaze, refocusing on the creator economy with the mission to “empower anyone to sell anything, anywhere”
- Acquired Teespring in November 2022, rebranded and launched as Spring by Amaze
- Simultaneously relaunched its legacy storefront builder platform as Studio by Amaze, for brands and entrepreneurs
Company Highlights
- 200M+ storefront visits
- 12M+ active creators on Amaze’s platform
- $50.2 Average Order Value (YTD 2025)
- Notable partnerships with Perez Hilton, AVO by DSTLD, and Live Current Media
- Unveiled Amaze Moments, an AI engine to help creators and brands identify and act on spikes in traffic, fan engagement, and cultural relevance
- Technology platform uses customer profile and purchase data to help creators better target and market to prospective customers
- Integrated with Dubit.io to launch 3D storefronts in gaming environments like Roblox and Fortnite
- Cut $215k in monthly labor and contractor costs starting in Dec due to AI initiatives
Business Lines
- Spring by Amaze…
- End-to-end creator merch platform that earns revenue through product sales, fulfillment fees, and revenue-share on creator merchandise
- Integrates seamlessly with major creator platforms and a global on-demand supply chain, enabling creators to launch and sell products instantly without inventory or upfront costs
- Studio by Amaze…
- Low-code storefront builder that monetizes via SaaS subscriptions and transaction fees on e-commerce sales
- Wine Products…
- Premium, low-carb wine brand (from the Fresh Vine Wine merger) generating revenue through D2C sales and retail distribution in the US
Capital Markets History
- Nov ‘25 Acquired The Food Channel, a digital publisher, for $650k
- Mar ‘25 Completed reverse merger with Fresh Vine Wine, for $75M equity exchange, rebranded to Amaze Holdings (NYSE: AMZE)
- May ‘23 Acquired Baxter Collective Limited, a marketing, advertising, and business-support services company
- Nov ‘22 Acquired Teespring, a print-on-demand and creator merchandise platform
Stock Performance
- Listed on NASDAQ: AMZE
- $0.27 as of Nov 20, 2025
- Down 89% MoM
- Down 98% YoY
Financials (USD)
(per public filings)
*Amaze Software became part of the Company only after its acquisition on March 7, 2025. Prior to that, the Company solely operated the Fresh Vine segment*
- Amaze Software Segement…
- Q3 2025 Revenue: $1.2M
- Q3 2025 Operating loss: ($2.7M)
- Q3 YTD Total Revenue: $2.1M
- Q3 YTD Total Operating Loss: ($6.2M)
- Fresh Vine Wine Segement…
- Q3 2025 Revenue: $32K, down 51% YoY
- Q3 2025 Operating loss: ($1.7M)
- Q3 YTD Total Revenue: $120k, down 50% YoY
- Q3 YTD Total Operating Loss: ($4.3M)
- TOTAL…
- Q3 2025 Revenue: $1.3M
- Q3 2025 Operating loss: ($4.4M)
- Q3 YTD Total Revenue: $2.2M
- Q3 YTD Total Operating Loss: ($10.5M)
Valuation
(per stockanalysis.com as of 11/20/2025)
NOTE: Q4 2024 Amaze revenue pre merger is likely excluded from below EV multiple, due to lack of public data.
- Mkt Cap: $2.0M
- C&CE:$300K
- Total Debt: $8.3M
- Enterprise Value: $10.0M
- Enterprise Value Multiples…
- LTM Q3 2025 Revenue: 4.45x
- LTM Q3 2025 EBITDA: NA
–DEAL DETAILS–
Overview
- Announced November 12, 2025
- Purchase price: $650K in convertible promissory notes, accruing 4% interest and convertible at $0.76 per share after issuance
Deal Origin Story
I can add unreported context here based on a convo I had with Amaze CEO Aaron Day just this morning. Makes me think I should add this section to future newsletters, via a “CEO corner” or something like that…
- Food is one of the company’s best performing verticals (which makes sense if you read my bottom section on why food media overindexes on user behavior and purchasing)
- Amaze team dug into 62,000 creators on their platform who have stores, and that specialize in food and health content, and spent time talking to them to understand their needs
- Majority of these food-focused creators connect to their fans on YouTube, and wanted a larger food content hub where their content could be syndicated along with other food content, to help access new fans, in a broader digital channel network, along with new and premium content formats
- It turned out that Amaze does a lot of business with the 2 owners of The Food Channel. The owners do a lot of work in the production industry for live action films, and Amaze is their commerce engine
- Specifically, The Food Channel was part of a division of the owners’ larger content holding company, and TFC was either considering or had just left the USA Today media network. It could have cost the owners millions of dollars and many months of work to rebuild the media platform from scratch, and Amaze was able to redo the platform and reskin it in less than 30 days.
- And so a conversation about an acquisition began…
Strategic Rationale
- Expands Amaze’s creator-powered commerce strategy with more depth in the food and beverage vertical by acquiring The Food Channel’s established digital brand and loyal audience.
- “Food and dining creators are among the most passionate and engaged communities online,” said Aaron Day, CEO of Amaze. “Bringing creators and fans together under The Food Channel brand allows us to deliver a more meaningful and interactive experience.”
- Danielle Pederson, CMO of Amaze, noted: “The Food Channel name carries strong credibility, and the excitement to collaborate and innovate around this next chapter has been tremendous”
- The Food Channel’s online audiences will help Amaze market to and target new customers for product and ecom offerings by its creator clients
- Gives Amaze access to new food-based creator clients who seek to launch product and ecom offerings
- Will give TFC’s brand marketer clients more premium sponsorship and integration offerings, as well as access to a much larger creator network, which will help grow client AOV and also help pitch new prospective brand marketer clients
- Gives Amaze a more premium content environment and food IP to improve and innovate upon the creator-to-consumer product buying experience
Post-Deal Operations
- The Food Channel continues operating under its brand within Amaze’s platform
- Integration with Amaze’s network of 60k+ food creators for content, e-commerce, and audience engagement, with creators gaining access to Amaze’s full suite of e-commerce and merchandising solutions
- Redesigned FoodChannel.com to provide an immersive, community-driven experience with AI-backed tools and integrated e-commerce capabilities, enabling creators to monetize content more effectively and foster audience interaction.
–WHAT ELSE I FIND INTERESTING–
- The rationale behind Amaze’s reverse merger with Fresh Vine Wine + dealmaking benefits of being a public company.
- In Sep 2023 FVW was told by the NYSE it wasn’t in compliance with listing requirements, specifically in not having at least $4M of shareholder equity after reporting losses in three of its four most recent fiscal years.
- In response, the company submitted a plan to the NYSE to be in compliance. The situation was considered resolved by the NYSE on March 10, 2025, shortly after the reverse merger was completed.
- Essentially, FVW standalone wasn’t viable as a public company, and Amaze wanted better access to the capital markets to continue growing its creator commerce platforms (you can read the detail about NYSE listing requirements in the 2025 10K SEC filing).
- So the reverse merger was announced in 2024 and consummated in early 2025. Now, as is typical in a reverse merger scenario where the new combined company has low revenues (in the single digit millions) and a small market capitalization (~$2M), Amaze will likely seek to quickly scale its business by bolstering revenue through acquisitions.
- Being publicly listed helps support its M&A ambitions, because (1) It can use its public stock as deal consideration, and (2) it now has access to a broader network of investors, with transparent reporting requirements that will help its more quickly close new financing.
- On that point…
- Amaze just raised $4.9M from a private placement per a recent 8K filing.
- According to a public 8K filing from November 12th, the company raised $4.9M from a private placement by selling 10.7M shares for an implied average purchase price of around $0.45.
- The buyer was C/M Capital Master Fund, which I believe is part of CM Capital Corp.
- That makes sense, since per the company’s recent 3Q results, the company had $8M of debt and only $300k of cash on its balance sheet, meaning a capital infusion was needed to continue funding operations, servicing its debt, and growing through M&A.
- And doing the Food Channel Deal was likely an important proof point to prospective investors that the company sees attractive acquisition opportunities in the market with clear synergy, and that there are more acquisition opportunities to follow…painting a path to investor ROI in a growing creator economy market.
- In turn, expect to see more acquisition announcements in the near future.
- Food is one of the most-watched social content formats, leading to lots of food-related dealmaking.
- Food media overindexes on audience media consumption and purchase conversion. We’ve been writing about this for a long time (see our 2022 predictions here).
- This explains why there’s been much dealmaking within the food subsector of the creator space.
- For example, we recently advised on the sale of Feedfeed, a food-focused social media publisher and creator network, to publicly traded People Inc. (our deal analysis).
- I also think of the $83M sale of Hot Ones and First We Feast to a Soros-backed consortium (our deal analysis), and the $90M sale of digital food publisher Tastemade to Wonder (our deal analysis).
- I also know of some other digital food publishers currently for sale on the market, but I’m unable to share any details.
- I therefore think the food vertical focus for Amaze’s 1st acquisition as a public co makes sense.
- Amaze found a small strategic asset at a reasonable valuation and purchase terms, that could give a quick revenue boost if leadership is able to quickly execute on the points we made in the strategic rationale analysis above.
- I bet Amaze will opportunistically double down on food if future deal opps arise…imagine if Food Network gets spun off from Warner Bros Discovery and consolidated into this new content x commerce platform!
- Also makes me think what other content verticals Amaze is looking into…
- Amaze redesigns The Food Channel to build a community-driven platform
- Amaze is rebranding FoodChannel.com as a next-generation social commerce and entertainment platform, allowing 60k+ food creators to engage audiences and brands through interactive, shoppable content.
- The redesigned platform integrates AI-backed merchandising solutions and e-commerce capabilities, enabling creators to sell directly to their audiences and build CPG revenue streams
- The Food Channel’s service offerings will also newly include online culinary classes, virtual cooking events, and culinary travel experiences signifying a move beyond editorial content into revenue-generating experiential and transactional experiences.
- Overall, the acquisition positions Amaze to deepen its roots in the food and beverage vertical, leveraging The Food Channel’s 30+ years of culinary leadership and established credibility with millions of food enthusiasts.
- Growing transparency in creator economy valuations and financial performance.
- Now that Amaze is a public company, which comes with reporting and disclosure requirements, we’ll be able to review its financial performance, dealmaking activity, and strategic moves in more detail.
- I love it!
- Since the merger was completed in March 2025, we currently only have 9 months of Amaze operating history. But going forward, we’ll be able to track quarterly data. The disclosures won’t just help us understand Amaze’s performance, but will also give us signals about the future of the creator economy and various business models that support the creator ecosystem.
- This is a win for all of us builders, investors, and dealmakers in the space.
- I wrote about this in Dotdigital / Social Snowball deal analysis. It’s worth reiterating…
- “With the growth of creator economy dealmaking, and new buyers entering the mix (including those who are publicly listed), we’re beginning to see more transparency and disclosure in deal valuations and companies’ financial performance. This is valuable since most creator economy deals over the past decade have been between private companies, or were at a smaller scale and thus considered “immaterial”, meaning public disclosure wasn’t required.
- But now, public companies like Publicis / WPP / Dotdigital are collectively spending billions on creator economy acquisitions, and creating much-needed public comps which offer crucial deal data points.
- Further, the upcoming MrBeast IPO which have required public disclosures like its S-1 filing, will *hopefully* provide good insights into the making of a billion-dollar creator business. I expect to see details on MrBeast’s business model, financial performance, team composition, operating structure, growth opportunities, key risks, and more.
- Having more public data about our industry’s operators and dealmaking will help us all navigate the growing and evolving creator x media landscape, and in turn will enable smarter investing and better-informed dealmaking. That’s a great win for our industry.”
I’m the founder of RockWater Industries. We do M&A and strategy advisory for creator economy and social / audio agencies. From buy / sell-side M&A and fundraising, to consumer research and go-to-market planning.
DM me on LinkedIn or email me chris@wearerockwater.com
